Most Among 600+ From Telangana In Safer Kurdistan & Not Keen To Come Home

While Telangana Government found out that there are a minimum 640 people from Telangana in Iraq, some of them from Iraq say most of them are in the safer regions, away from the city of Mosul, the centre of civil war right now. They say Telanganas are mostly in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Erbil and some in southern Iraq. These are away from regions of turbulence and life is life is normal, as per them.

Meanwhile International Red Crescent confirmed that 40 Indians, mostly Punjabis, were kidnapped by rebels in Mosul. The abductors are supposedly from ISIS, the Jihadist group which is the cause of the present strife in Iraq. Indian embassy is yet to establish contact with the kidnappers or the Indian workers.

Workers from Telangana say most of them are in Erbil, which has a booming Oil, Construction and Hospitality Industry thereby providing ample employment opportunities. Erbil is referred as the Dubai of Iraq, for it’s comparative liberal society. Some Telanganas are said to be in the safer south Iraq, to the south of Baghdad. Some of these workers who spoke to their families to assure them of their well-being clearly seem to have also told they have no plans to return home now as they are comfortable in their safe regions, as per media reports.

Meanwhile, as many as 150 Shia Muslims  from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh seem to be awaiting exit pass from the southern Iraqi city of Najab Ashraf. They are on a pilgrimage to Karbala to observe Shia festival Shab-e-barat. As per schedule, about 150 members in 4 different groups are set to return to Hyderabad on June 29. Their religious leaders seem to have spoken with the Iran government, which accepted to give them temporary shelter in Tehran and so the pilgrims would fly to Tehran on June 20 and later fly to Hyderabad via Sharjah.