A 42-year old contract worker from Tamil Nadu employed with a Korean group has been killed and another seriously injured in gunfire during the anti-government violence in Libya, the victim's family said.
The fate of 22 other colleagues, who also hailed from the remote Thalaivankottai village in the district, was not known, according to Vellathai, who gave a petition to the District Collector seeking steps to retrieve the body of her husband.
The UN Security Council has called a meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss the crackdown by authorities in Libya. The meeting was requested by Libya's deputy ambassador who has deserted Gaddafi. In Libya, the protestors have taken over Benghazi and many other cities even as over 230 people have been killed in Gaddafi's brutal crackdown.
The media has been gagged and so protestors are posting videos of the unrest on social media. Like this dramatic one which shows the bodies of soldiers who were burnt alive for refusing to fire at protestors. Another video captures an explosion on the streets of capital Tripoli.
Libyan airspace has been closed after two pilots who refused to fire at protestors and fled the country on fighter jets. Libyan Ambassador to India, Ali Al-Essawi who resigned from his post on Monday said violence against civilians is unacceptable.
The turmoil in West Asia has forced the Indian government to make frantic efforts to secure Indians trapped there. There are 18 thousand Indians in Libya alone. External Affairs Minister SM Krishna has briefed the Prime Minister on the MEA's contingency plans. Control rooms have been set up in Libya and Yemen.
Vellathai, in her representation to M Jeyaraman, said her husband's colleague Ashok Kumar informed the family on February 20 about the death of Murugaiah, employed with Hyundai group.
She said Kumar also told her he was seriously injured in the gunfire that caused a fire in the camp where the workers had been put up.
Vellathai sought the intervention of the Indian Government to bring back the body of her husband and also the ascertain the condition of the others, whose names were listed in the petition.
"We are desperately looking for the government's help to retrieve and bring back the body of my husband and to know the status of the other labourers," she said.
According to the petitioner, the 24 semi-skilled workers from the village were employed on a two-year contract by the Korean company for erecting electricity towers on a monthly salary of Rs 30,000.
The workers are allowed four days leave annually to visit their home and they were to have come this month end, a sobbing Vellathai told reporters later.
Thalaivankottai panchayat President K Poosaipandian accompanied the family members of Murugaiah.
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