Terminally-ill K’tk bishop, 4 infants among 340 leave for Hyderabad in charted flight

A terminally-ill bishop from Karnataka stuck here amid COVID-19 lockdown and longing to get back home before dying was among 336 passengers and four infants who left for India in a charted Ethiopian Airlines flight on Sunday.

passengers also included an eight-member Christian group from Goa visiting South Africa on a religious seminar but having landed in jail and ar 15-member group of Hakki Pikki tribe of tritional healing oil makers from Karnataka.

Almost all passengers were from various sourn states with about half of m from Hyderab alone, said Consul General in Johannesburg Anju Ranjan, who coordinated and arranged for stranded Indians to fly back to Telangana capital via dis Ababa.

Ranjan arranged repatriation of Indians with assistance from Satguru Travel and India Club, a group of expatriates, who have been undertaking community service work in South Africa for nearly two deces w.

Karnataka bishop h been suffering from last st of cancer and got stranded here amid lockdown, said India Club officials, ding his only desire was to die in his homeland.

“ group from Goa was here on a religious seminar but h landed in jail as y were unable to pay for ir accommodation in a hotel after ir extended stay due to COVID-19 lockdown,” said Ranjan, as she flagged off several buses bedecked with Tricolours.

“ Consulate General of India with its efforts, was able to get m released and put m on charter,” she ded.

A Hakki Pikki group of 40 people has been stuck in South Africa, mostly in Johannesburg and Cape Town, for past five months and h means to travel back to India, said Ranjan.

“ Indian High Commission and consulates in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg, with support from business community, was able to sponsor tickets for 12 of m to travel back to India on charter flight,” she said, ding three ors mand to buy tickets on ir own.

“I would like to thank India Club for ir initiative with a chartered flight with Satguru Travels; as well as local community and South African government for assisting in this mammoth task of sending se passengers to Hyderab,” Ranjan said.

passengers were in buoyant mood. Most of m did t mind even paying Rs 17,000 each for ir air tickets, almost four times rmal single airfare between Johannesburg and Hyderab.

Ashish Sharma of Satguru Travels said y h rallied to call from Ranjan, and company provided as many sponsorships as it could for Indian citizens who h been stranded in South Africa.

India Club officials said with more than half of passengers hailing from Hyderab, it would make ir mandatory quarantine periods on arrival easier than what it would have been, h y landed in Delhi or Mumbai.