Another 176 Pakistan nationals evacuated from Yemen

Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday successfully evacuated another 176 of its nationals from Yemen when a special plane carrying them arrived here at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport.

The passengers were received by Prime Minister's adviser on civil aviation Shujaat Azeem and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif.

The flight was sent to Djibouti and it brought back the stranded persons who were initially evacuated from the port of Aden through a Chinese ship, which shifted them to Djibouti.

It was the second flight after about 500 stranded people were brought back on the weekend.

About 3,000 Pakistanis were in Yemen and more than 2,000 are still awaiting evacuation, including 175 in the port city of Mokallah, where a Pakistan Navy ship reached yesterday, but the evacuation was delayed because of skirmishes.

Another group of 145 Pakistanis is in Sanaa and have refused to go to other places and the government is waiting for clearance of airspace to fly them back.

Hundreds of stranded Pakistanis are at other places and government is trying to take them to safer area from where they can be retrieved.

The defence minister said that the remaining Pakistanis stranded in Yemen will be evacuated soon.