Ash in Bali: Hamid Ansari, CBI team, Chhota Rajan among Indians stuck on the island

The contingent was to fly out to Brunei on November 4 before returning to India on November 5 midnight. With the Brunei visit more or less cancelled now, according to official sources, they are now hoping to fly back to India on Friday at least, keeping the return as per schedule.

Another Indian, as much or rather more in the news, stuck at Bali, is gangster Chhota Rajan who was all set to be deported on the night of November 3 but who is still incarcerated at the police detention centre at Denpasar. Along with him also on an extended stay is the team of four from CBI who had arrived in Bali on Sunday to process the deportation. The paperwork is all complete – that according to the Indian ambassador Gurjit Singh was accomplished in a record time of two days given the exigency of the situation -and teams in readiness to affect the deportation. But all is on hold now till Lombok’s Mount Barujari’s volcano decides to relent and stop spewing out ash that is a serious threat to aircraft in that air space.

Ansari was to leave to Brunei, on a first-of-its-kind bilateral visit, on Wednesday afternoon, where he was to meet Sultan Hassanal Bolkaiah and crown prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah.

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In Bali on Wednesday, the vice president unveiled a bust of Mahatma Gandhi at the Udayana University and addressed the students there.

Incidentally, a couple of corporate companies who have chosen Bali for their conference/off-site with over 50 employees here are similarly stuck at the island till Friday morning at least when the review will take place once about the opening of the airport.

On Tuesday night, the Indonesian transport ministry had announced that it would close airports in Bali and Lombok until further notice, on advice from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.

The volcanic ash cloud is about one kilometre high and blowing north-west from Lombok towards Bali.