The special Indian Air Force aircraft, carrying the mortal remains of 45 Indians who were killed in a fire incident in Kuwait, has reached Cochin International Airport.

At least 45 Indians including 24 from Kerala, were killed and 49 others were injured in the massive fire that erupted in a six-storied building in Mangaf city in Kuwait on Wednesday, killing at least 48 people. Out of the 176 Indian workers in the housing facility, 45 died and 33 are hospitalised, the Indian embassy has said.

Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh, who arrived in the same flight, and had gone to Kuwait to ensure swift repatriation of bodies and oversee coordination, said the Kuwaiti government has taken this incident very seriously and offered full cooperation.

”They are making inquiries as to how it happened so that this kind of a tragic incident is never repeated. They have also assured us that all the paperwork regarding the insurance that is to be paid to the families, and the compensation will be done as immediately as possible,” he told a news agency at the airport.

He further said the moment the government got to know that this incident had taken place, PM Narendra Modi immediately convened a meeting. He said PM Modi had already spoken to the authorities there, to the foreign minister there and to the Emir of Kuwait.

He praised the Kuwaiti authorities as they did everything possible to help. ”They took all possible measures and fully cooperated in having all the papers completed, identification was done in such a short time because normally this could have taken a week or at least ten days. On PM Modi’s instructions, the authorities were very quick about it…”

Mr Kirti Vardhan Singh met Kerala Ministers at the Cochin International Airport.
Among others, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, state Health Minister Veena George and Union Minister Suresh Gopi were present at the airport.

Veena Georgee told reporters that ”We are only waiting for the official procedures to be done… Every body is numbered, all the ambulances are numbered, and the addresses are given to the ambulances. Everything is done in coordination with the police… Everything will be done in the interest of the families… The embassy has not yet declared the number of injured persons who are being treated in the hospitals. According to unofficial information which we collected, 30 people from Kerala are undergoing treatment out of which 7 are in the ICU…”

She further said that all arrangements were complete and ambulances were ready. ”Police will be accompanying all the bodies. More than half of the people who died were from Kerala. The majority of the people who are under treatment are also from Kerala,” she added.

Union Minister Suresh Gopi told reporters the tragedy was so voluminous and impactful, that ”it is a thud on the ‘pravasi’ community, which helped the economic situation in Kerala…”

He said that the state and the country have very high regard for the ‘pravasi’ community and it is very painful.

”The individual loss is of every home which has been implicated by this tragedy… India will play its role very well because we have initiated action as soon as the news was received. The government will take appropriate actions and decisions and make very appropriate deliverances.”

BJP leader V Muraleedharan, also present at the airport, said after the incident happened, the Prime Minister convened a high-level meeting in the presence of EAM. ”The MoS MEA, on the directions of the Prime Minister, travelled to Kuwait yesterday. He supervised the repatriation of the mortal remains to India and also the treatment that was being administered to the injured in the tragedy.”