Heart-wrenching scenes were witnessed at the Imphal airport which is overcrowded with passengers young and old, many of them ailing and wailing, eager to flee from Manipur which has been shaken by violence since last week.
Patients with catheters just out of ICU, newborn and premature babies with mothers, women with advanced pregnancy, bed-ridden cancer patients, besides people with worry writ large on their faces – all thronged the airport in the past few days to take flights for places outside the state as soon as possible, officials said on Tuesday.
Some of these passengers with bullet injuries have alsobeen seen in the airport. “You would feel like crying if you see the scene at the Imphal airport,” an AAI official told PTI over the phone from Imphal on Tuesday. Close to 2,000 passengers are stranded at the premises of the airport, the terminal building of which can handle only 750 passengers – 250 for arrival and 500 for departure – at a time.
Airline companies have put in additional flights to take the passengers, with their queue getting longer gradually as the ethnic violence broke out a few days ago and army men have to be deployed. Doctors of the airport, employees of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and staff of different airlines have been working hand in hand round the clock to make the distressed people a bit comfortable. The AAI has been providing all stranded people with food and water.
The airport now is being run with bare minimum support. Since all shops are closed outside the facility, the AAI officials in Imphal had sent SOS messages to nearby airports such as Guwahati, Agartala and Dibrugarh to get supplies – food, water, essential medicines and others for both staff and passengers, another official said.
A special ticket counter has been opened at the airport. A Local Area Network (LAN) network is being used for the purpose as internet services have been suspended since last week in the state, said the officials who refused to be identified for fear of getting targeted. Sources at the airport said that the gates of the airport have been attacked twice by the rioters but they could not succeed in entering.
An employee said that his colleagues and officers have been staying on the airport premises since the violence broke out. The handful of AAI employees have not been getting enough rest, an official said.