Molly was waiting for her daughter’s first visit to home from Iraq later this month. But a sudden outbreak of civil war in the Middle Eastern nation, cut short her wait dramatically.
Outside the international terminal of the Cochin International Airport Limited at Nedumbassery on Saturday morning for the arrival of the special Air India plane carrying the stranded Indian nurses, Ms. Molly thanked God for bringing back her 29-year-old daughter Nithyamol unscathed.
“We will send her to any country in the future but not Iraq,” a visibly relieved Ms. Molly told The Hindu . Ms. Nithyamol’s close-to-a-year stint in Iraq was her first job abroad. She was serving at a hospital in Noida before that.
When rebels forcibly took her captive along with 45 other nurses on Wednesday, Ms. Nithyamol was setting foot outside the hospital at Tikrit for the first time since her arrival in Iraq in August last year.
“Our initial concerns at their capture proved unfounded. When I spoke to her over phone she said that they were being taken care of by the captors except for their angry outburst initially when the sisters declined to leave the hospital. But since then the rebels had given them food and ensured their security by deploying armed guards outside the room where they were kept at Ebril,” Ms. Molly said. Elated by the safe return of her daughter, Ms. Molly was least concerned about her daughter’s outstanding pay due for four months.
Nisha, Ms. Nithyamol’s older sister, recollected that things were normal when she spoke with her last month. “But when she called last week I could overhear sound of blasts and firing,” Ms. Nisha said.
Ms. Molly said that her daughter was not hurt in the blast that was triggered by the rebels when the nurses were leaving the hospital. Her friend suffered minor injuries, she said.
