Kathmandu: On Thursday, as Kathmandu International Airport resumed flights, it brought people from all over the country, hoping to be the first to take off. Immigrant workers who have lived on the street for nearly two days awaiting the resumption of flights, tourists sit in their hotel rooms and watch the beautiful valleys fall into chaos, many wonder if they can stay abroad before the violence ends, and some want to return home.
A passenger arrived at his flight at Tribwan International Airport, which was launched after a deadly anti-corruption protest triggered by a social media ban in Kathmandu on Thursday as the airport reopened. (Reuters/ANI)
At 7pm Thursday, the streets became empty as Nepalese troops enforced curfews in the national capital – shops that opened for two hours at night were rushing to close, with people in serpentine queues sitting outside the fuel station (escorted by the Army) (escorted by the Army) to return to the morning. Unless ambulances and vehicles move towards Tribwan International Airport, all forms of movement are prohibited throughout the city. However, after dozens of checkpoints managed by Nepali military personnel, the vehicles in the vehicles slowly but gradually joined the thousands of people at Kathmandu Airport.
At 7.45 pm, the flight schedule on the airport dashboard shows at least 9 different flights waiting to destinations such as Doha, Bangkok, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. The last flight of India took many Indian citizens back to New Delhi, around 7 o'clock – a day to India. Airport officials say thousands of Indian nationals are still trapped in places that cannot be escaped in different parts of the country. Air India, Indigo and Spice Jet also resumed flights to and from Nepal on Thursday.
Namrat Basnet (36) is a migrant worker in Saudi Arabia who hopes to fly out of Kathmandu. Basnet, who works as a mechanic at a Steel Company in the country, said citizens like him will be most affected due to Nepal's ban on social media. Nearly 40-50% of Nepalese citizens’ lives depend on immigrant workers like me who go abroad and send money home. Banning social media apps is a setback for us. We use these apps to send money and talk to our family. This is through these apps on the phone that we see on the phone that our kids are actually protesting in protest. comfort. ”
Wearing Nepali flags and garlands for their safe journey abroad, most of which thousands of people at the airport, awaiting turns to call their flight numbers and airline personnel to accompany them, even as the army surrounds the airport entrance from all directions. Then there was a couple hugging outside the airport – the husband left the country to work abroad. “The story of Nepalis is because people go abroad to make money is a harsh reality. It's the same scene we see at the airport every night,” an airline operator said.
Vijay Kumar Mandal (25), who had worked as a laborer in Malaysia for six years, returned to Nepal two years ago. Mandal, a resident of Janakpur, Nepal, comes from the same village as his 12 friends. “We are leaving on September 9, but once we are here, the violence is unfolding. Our flight is cancelled and we have to spend the night in a warehouse outside the local merchant's house. The next night, our boss, we found our job in Saudi Arabia, and they took us to another night, and it was two days after the whole night. We have lost our titterip. Thousands of citizens like us are working abroad and we want us here to protest the corruption of the government, but we have a mouth to go home.”
Then, a group of foreigners came home safely accompanied by police and personnel. British resident Alex settled in Dubai, saying it was his 15th trip to Nepal. “Our embassy officials told us to stay in the hotel. We didn't go out when the protests turned violent. We heard that the vehicles were burned outside the hotel, but we could only see this when we left the hotel today. I worked for a recruitment company in Dubai. My wife and children were worried about the last two days after the report I heard. Such chaos.”
Nepalese troops on the road said the situation was tense, but there were no major cases of violence. The Army is protecting all the important facilities throughout the city – hotels, oil companies, hospitals, shopping malls. They are even protecting gas stations and grocery stores. “We were instructed to allow only ambulances and foreign travelers. People, especially foreigners, were instructed not to go out of their homes/hotels and stay where they were. We hope that things will improve tomorrow,” Nepalese army officials guarded an oil warehouse.