New Delhi [India], February 21 (ANI ): The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team is one of the international teams who reached the earthquake-hit Turkey first for relief and rescue under ‘Operation Dost’, NDRF DG Atul Karwal said on Tuesday. Speaking to ANI, Karwal said that “The first challenge was how soon we can mobilize our teams and reach Turkey as our aim was to reach there as soon as possible to save more people’s lives.”
“We had the full support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister’s Office held a meeting and instructed us to go there, we prepared ourselves immediately. Our official passports were made on the same day and till late evening the office was kept open. Indian Air Force picked up our team from Kolkata and brought us to Delhi to get a visa. ITBP provided us with winter clothing and whatever we could anticipate might be needed we got without delay of one minute,” Karwal said.
Karwal further said, that out of all the international teams that reached Turkey, our team was the first team that reached there. “The ability of NDRF is that we give the training to bear the hardships and how to live in such situations of the earthquake. We were deployed in Noortak and Antakya where the earthquake affected badly and people needed help,” Karwal said.
He further told that the biggest problem was the problem of language there as they could not understand our language and point of view, and we could not understand their language and point of view, but we are being trained like this, so we were able to manage everything. “A total of 85 dead bodies were recovered by the NDRF that were buried in the building. We were also able to rescue the two girls alive” he added.
He further said that the locals there gave them a lot of respect. The local people were suffering from food problems but they used to arrange some food and tea for our teams with great love. When the NDRF team was coming from there many people clapped and encouraged us. “Many local people of Turkey wanted to give something to NDRF rescuers to keep the bond between the two countries alive” he added. (ANI)
Turkish embassy thanks dost Indians for standing in solidarity through donations, prayers
New Delhi [India], February 21 (ANI): The Turkish embassy on Tuesday conducted an inter-faith prayer in the national capital to pay tribute to victims of the earthquake in the country. Ambassador Firat Sunel said, “I am deeply touched that we organised a religious prayer today which included representatives of all major religions in India. This is a very big moral support.
When asked about the relief material needs of Turkey after the earthquake, the envoy remarked that tents, containers and blankets are required the most there. “What we need the most are some materials like tents, containers and blankets especially. Containers are the most important in Turkey because of harsh weather conditions as the temperature there varies from minus five degrees to sometimes minus 10 degrees. I know they are big materials but we also need portable washrooms. However, we have also received donations from Indians,” he added. Sunel further thanked the government for helping the Turkish embassy open an official donation Rupee account.
Notably, Turkey witnessed two earthquakes which jolted the southernmost Hatay province on Monday, to this, the envoy expressed: “There were some already damaged buildings and because of this earthquake of 6.4 magnitude, four people died, I heard from the news.”
The Embassy of Turkey also posted on Twitter about the prayer meeting and said, “An inter-faith prayer ceremony has been held in the Embassy today to commemorate the earthquake victims in Turkiye. Sincere thanks to dost Indians who stand in solidarity with Turkish people through their donations, letters and prayers.” It is pertinent to mention that India launched ‘Operation Dost’ to aid in search-and-rescue in Turkey and Syria following deadly earthquakes that struck on February 6 and claimed over 46,000 lives to date. (ANI)
