Stranded Indian family marks end of ordeal with Eid

July 31, 2014

Stranded Indian

Riyadh, Jul 31: The ordeal of a stranded Indian family from Hyderabad finally came to an end with the climax being the wishful Eid Al-Fitr celebration with family and friends at home as they departed from King Khaled International Airport, Riyadh to India, celebrating the festival on Tuesday.

The Saudi government, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, Shifa Al-Jazeera Hospital and some Indian social workers helped the family to go home after they could not facilitate their departure during the amnesty period due to non-availability of documents.

The saga of the family’s traumatic experience began with Mohammed Abdul Aziz from Hyderabad bringing his family here in 2000 and subsequently living illegally in the Kingdom.

Abdul Aziz, came to the Kingdom 19 years ago to work as an assistant pharmacist. He brought his wife Aneesa Begum and two children Hannan and Hadi on a family visa in 2000, but the same year he had a dispute with his employer and left his job to become a driver and do other small jobs for survival and livelihood.

However, he neglected to renew his iqama for 14 years and did not register his four children born in Riyadh subsequently — Noora, Aisha, Subhan and Mannan — due to poverty.

The children never went to school as they did not have proper documents like birth certificates.

However, they learned Arabic at home from their mother and could read the Holy Qur’an.

Aneesa Begum told Arab News that the family had not been able to make use of last year’s amnesty to return home. “We tried our best to get an emergency certificate to go home during the grace period but were unable to do so because we did not have the required documents.”

She said her husband had stayed illegally in the Kingdom because he wanted to support their poor family back home.

Luckily, Abdul Aziz’s sponsor never declared him an absconder (Haroob) although he had not been in touch with him for almost 15 years.

Abdul Aziz was subsequently held at the Shumaisi deportation center for several months after being detained in a routine inspection by the Riyadh police in the Batha area.

When he was arrested, the family faced further problems because their landlord evicted them for not paying the rent.

Furthermore, Abdul Aziz was facing separation from his family after languishing at the deportation center for months, but after the eviction from the rented house, the family stayed for some time at the SAPTCO bus stand in Azizia, where they were spotted by Indian social workers and eventually received aid from the Indian diplomatic mission, Shifa Al-Jazeera and Tarheel.

As the family requested assistance from the authorities to be granted final exit visas along with Abdul Aziz, their sole breadwinner, they received assistance from the embassy to return home on final exit visa on humanitarian grounds as they were without valid papers.

Indian Ambassador Hamid Ali Rao was regularly following the developments to facilitate the final exit for the stranded family, and embassy volunteer Shihab Kottukad along with other social workers helped the family get exit visas.

The family was moved to the Shifa Al-Jazeera polyclinic and provided initial accommodation.

Later, the embassy sponsored the family’s lodging and provided them with eight tickets to go home and transportation to the airport.

Shifa Al-Jazeera has also provided monetary help to the family amounting to 100,000 Indian rupees as financial assistance to enable them return home and resettle with family and friends.

Notably, the family celebrated Eid Al-Fitr here on Monday and reached home to participate in the festivities in Hyderabad on Tuesday, the day India and the rest of the world celebrated the festival sighting moon on Monday.

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Agencies
August 4,2020

Beirut, Aug 4: A massive explosion has shaken the Lebanese capital of Beirut, with a very high number of casualties expected.

A warehouse at the Beirut Port caught fire on Tuesday afternoon, triggering a huge explosion, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Several smaller explosions were heard before the bigger one occurred.

Abbas Ibrahim, the head of Lebanon’s General Security, said that “highly explosive materials” confiscated earlier had been stored at the site.

Footage shared on social media captured the moment of the bigger explosion, with a colossal shock wave seen traveling fast across several hundreds of meters and shrouding the area in thick smoke.

The blast left enormous material damage to the surrounding buildings and structures. But it was not immediately known how big an area was affected.

There was also no immediate casualty count. Graphic amateur video from the scene showed bodies strewn on the ground, with their clothes blown off.

The NNA said rescue operations were underway. Ambulances were seen heading toward the scene in central Beirut.

Lebanese LBC television channel quoted Lebanon’s Health Minister Hamad Hasan as saying that the blast had caused a “very high number of injuries” and “extensive damage.”

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud said an unspecified number of firefighters dispatched to extinguish the initial fire had been killed in the explosion.

“As they were putting out the fire, the explosion took place and we’ve [lost them],” he said, breaking down on live TV.

The explosion comes at a time when the Arab country is passing through its worst economic and financial crisis in decades, and amid rising tensions with Israel.

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News Network
July 20,2020

Abu Dhabi, Jul 20: The United Arab Emirates launched its first-ever interplanetary Hope Probe mission to Mars from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre at 01:58 a.m. (local time) on Monday.

"United Arab Emirates (UAE) launches its first mission to Mars, the 'Hope Mars Mission' from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center," UAE Space Agency said on its Twitter page.

The spacecraft is expected to reach Mars orbit in about 200 days from now and then begin its mission to study the Red Planet's atmosphere, WAM news agency reported.

Once it enters Mars' orbit in the first quarter of 2021, the Hope probe will mark the UAE's 50th anniversary.

The probe will travel 493 million kilometres into space in a journey that will take seven months, and will orbit the Red Planet for one full Martian year of 687 days to provide the first truly global picture of the Martian atmosphere.

The Hope probe will be the first to study the Martian climate throughout daily and seasonal cycles. It will observe the weather phenomena on Mars such as the massive famous dust storms that have been known to engulf the Red Planet, as compared to the short and localised dust storms on Earth.

It will also examine the interaction between the upper and lower layers of the Martian atmosphere and causes of the Red Planet's surface corrosion, as well as study why Mars is losing its upper atmosphere.

Exploring connections between today's Martian weather and the ancient climate of the Red Planet will give deeper insights into the past and future of Earth as well as the potential of life on Mars and other distant planets.

The Hope Mars Mission is considered as the biggest strategic and scientific national initiative announced by UAE's President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 2014. The UAE will be the first Arab nation to embark on a space mission to the Red Planet in a journey that contributes to the international science community as a service to human knowledge.

The interplanetary mission is the first by any West Asian, Arab or Muslim majority country.

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News Network
April 11,2020

Dubai, Apr 11: Saudi Arabia has reported another 382 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 4,033, the Ministry of Health announced on Saturday.

The ministry also confirmed five more deaths from the virus, pushing the death toll in Kingdom to 52.

A total of 35 people has made full recovery from the deadly disease, taking the tally of patients recovered to 720.

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