Counting pills, fearing blasts: Indians stranded in West Asia | India News

New Delhi: Neeru Garg and her husband count pills and hours. Their flight back to Sharjah disappeared. A taxi ride brings them to Dubai – and a city under missile fire. “We have no money left and essential medicines are running low,” said Garg, principal of Punjab’s Bathinder College, on Sunday from an Indian doctor’s home where they were sheltered. “We don’t know where to go.”Across West Asia, thousands of Indians – tourists, expatriates, pilgrims, politicians and families with children – have been stranded as Iran retaliates following the US-Israeli attack on Iran. This resulted in extensive airspace closures and the closure of Dubai, the world’s busiest transit hub. “We were asked to leave the airport without any help,” Garg said.Air traffic jams have deepened the crisis. Indian carriers canceled nearly 350 flights on Sunday alone, while West Asia-based airlines scrubbed more than 1,600 services across their networks. Airports from Chennai and Jaipur to Mangaluru and Amritsar reported mass cancellations in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Doha and Jeddah.In Karnataka, dozens of Kannadigas died across Dubai after flights were grounded mid-journey. Among them were Congress MLAs NR Bharatha Reddy and SR Srinivas and JD(S) MLC SL Bhojegowda.Vojegowda, traveling with his family to India from Johannesburg via Dubai, said the shutdown came without warning. “As soon as we arrived at Dubai airport, we were informed that all flights were grounded due to Iranian airstrikes,” he said in a video message, adding that they were safe but stranded.Karnataka Election Commissioner SG Sangamri and State Guarantee Scheme Implementation Committee Vice Chairperson Pushpa Amarnath also failed to return. Amarnath, who was in Dubai for an award ceremony, said the guests received repeated security alerts. “We were advised not to stand near the window. About 60 tourists from Karnataka are staying at my hotel. All flights have been cancelled.”From Ballari district, 50 tourists flying to Dubai on February 24 were stranded when their return flight was canceled on February 28 as airstrikes began. Fifteen members of a family said they were denied entry to the airport and ran out of cash they were carrying.A relative said, “Hotel rooms cost between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 per night. We couldn’t afford it and had nowhere to go.” The state legislators later arranged accommodation for the group at the service quarters near the airport.In Kolkata, film director and Trinamool MLA Raj Chakraborty, husband of actress Subhasree Ganguly, said he could hear the missile blast from his hotel. She was stranded in Dubai with her son. Return date is uncertain.