BBC Online :
A group of 46 Indian nurses freed by Isis militants after being trapped in Iraq has arrived home in the southern city of Kochi to be greeted by rapturous friends and relatives.
The nurses were flown back on Saturday morning on a special Air India flight.
They had been stranded while working at a hospital in the northern city of Tikrit for more than a week.
Sunni rebels led by militant group Isis have occupied large swathes of northern and western Iraq.
They have declared a large region straddling Iraq and Syria a caliphate or Islamic state.
About 10,000 Indians are reported to be working in Iraq. Scores of them have returned to India since fighting began.
“We are very happy [to be freed],” Marina Jose, one of the nurses released by the militants told NDTV. “We never thought we would come out because the situation was very bad.”
She said that the militants had for the most part treated them well.
The nurses received a tumultuous welcome, led by their families and the chief minister of the southern state of Kerala, Oomen Chandy. Every political party was represented.
They said they had burst into tears when the militants showed them their bombs and ammunition on the bus. But both of them said they had not been mistreated.
