The situation has gone from bad to worse'

Mangalore, March 3: When Chetana Jagadish, a student in Mysore, telephoned her father at Marsa El Brega in Libya on Wednesday, she could hear the gunfire. She, however, was happy that her father, Jagadish Kumar, who works with the Sirte Oil Company “is safe”. About 65 people working for Sirte are Indians and are trapped there.

“Colonel Qadhafi's men walked into the oil company premises and replaced the flags of the rebels today,” said Manjaya Shetty, an engineer with the company, who came here on vacation much before the hostilities began. He is in constant touch with his brother-in-law T. Rajaram Melanta who also works for the company.

Marsa El Brega is about 250 km away from Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya, which has a port. Benghazi was the first to come under the grip of rebels.

Mr. Shetty said the situation had gone from bad to worse in the last 24 hours.

Mr. Melanta's wife, Sapna, and son, Harshavardhan (15), are settled in Pune. They are in touch with Mr. Melanta and Mr. Shetty seeking information on his safety and evacuation from Libya. According to Mr. Shetty, the European countries, China and the Philippines had evacuated a large number of their nationals, but India was able to bring back only about 3,000 of the 18,000 nationals there. He urged the Government to evacuate Indians on a war-footing.

He believes that as many as 5,000 people are trapped in Benghazi. Mr. Shetty said family members of those working for Sirte could call him on 9901323091 to make a concerted effort to put pressure on the External Affairs Ministry to take quick action.

His efforts to reach out to elected representatives were futile, Mr. Shetty added.