Indians heave a sigh of relief at Patna airport after their return from Libya on Tuesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, March 1: The fate of two families is hanging in the balance with their sons yet to return from Libya.

Uma Shrivastava, a resident of Booth Nath Road and mother of Kumar Sameer (28), who works in Libya as a civil engineer in a construction firm, said: “Sameer called me at 6am today and said he was boarding a ship from Libya for Egypt.” He added that he would reach Egypt on March 3 and on March 4, he will fly down to Delhi before arriving in Patna.”

She added: “He again called me in the afternoon to tell me that he was safely sailing by ship. I just want my son to return home. I am praying to god that nothing unfortunate happens to him. As my husband is a retired person, Sameer is our only hope. He is not even married.”

Uma also said all the expenses of Sameer’s return are being borne by the Indian government. “He could not talk to me for long because he did not have enough balance on his mobile,” said Uma.

Shiv Dayal Sinha, a resident of Sultanpur, whose son Ajit Kumar Sinha is a deputy general manager in a private firm, Punj Lloyd, said: “He called at 9am. He told me that he might get the ticket and visa from the Indian embassy and if everything goes as planned, he would be back by March 3. Being a father, I am very tensed, even my daughter-in-law Smita is worried and is thinking about him all the time.”

Meanwhile, 18 people who were stuck in the land of Gaddafi, took an Air India flight to Delhi before taking a special plane back to Bihar. The plane had been sent by the Indian government to rescue people of Indian origin from Libya.

Officials of the Bihar labour department took all of them to the Bihar Secretariat from the airport.

The Bihar government had made arrangements for their travel between Delhi and Patna. After checking their passports and other documents at the Patna airport, custom officials allowed them to leave.

Ram Naresh from Siwan said: “We have had to leave Libya in a hurry, we did not have any money and the government did everything for us. I am happy to be back home. I couldn’t wait there any longer. My family and my loved ones were waiting for me to return after my harrowing experience in Tripoli.”

Interacting with another man from Gopalganj, Naveen Gupta said: “There is complete lawlessness in Libya, anybody could have attacked us with daggers or other weapons to rob our money. When we went to the embassy in groups, we had no money with us but I am grateful to the central and state governments for helping us during such a crisis.”