Flights cancelled, airport shut: Punjab principal stuck in Sharjah without cash, medicines

In a 1.50-minute video message posted on Sunday morning, Neeru Garg appealed to the Government of India to help, highlighting the difficulties faced by stranded passengers as the UAE authorities, in the face of escalating tension in the Middle East, suspended airport operations.

Speaking in Punjabi, she said, “After airport operations were suspended, passengers were advised to contact their respective airlines, but no assistance was available as airline staff had vacated their counters. We were eventually asked to leave the airport around 10 pm on Saturday. Late at night, we managed to get a hotel 20 km away at a very high cost and only till 11 am on Sunday,” she said.

The couple said they had around Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 converted into dirhams, which they spent and were running out of cash. They also expressed concern about their health. “Our blood pressure medicines are close to finishing. We are requesting the Indian government to help us,” she said in the video.

“We request the Government of India to hear us out, as many passengers are stuck, and there is panic. People are harassed, many are sick, but no one here is listening to us,” she said.

Earlier, Garg had shared a video on Saturday, stating they had completed all security checks to board an IndiGo flight to Amritsar. “Security checks were completed around 1.30 pm, and passengers were asked to report again at 2 pm. However, by 2.30 pm, passengers were informed that the flight had been cancelled due to the closure of airspace,” she said, alleging that “no guidance was provided thereafter, and passengers were eventually asked to vacate the airport premises late at night”.

Garg said large numbers of passengers were stranded in similar circumstances, several of them had exhausted their cash and were running short of medicines.

She claimed that repeated calls to the Indian embassy on the toll-free number went unanswered.

Punjab Cabinet minister for NRI affairs Dr Ravjot Singh spoke with Neeru Garg over the phone Sunday afternoon and also posted an audio clip of their conversation on his social media page.

Garg told the minister that more than 60 Punjabi families are stranded along with them.

The minister said, “I communicated with passengers from Punjab stranded in the UAE. Specifically, I spoke with Neeru Garg, principal of SSD Girls’ College, Bathinda.”

“We assure you that we will help you out. We are in touch with the Union government and will request them to arrange a special plane to bring back the stranded Indian tourists to India,” the minister told Garg, assuring her that he will be in regular touch with her.

Neeru Garg told Dr Ravjot that she and her husband were now staying in a private accommodation arranged by a few friends back home, and that a flight to India was the only help they needed.