KERALA PRIEST RESCUED IN YEMEN
Muscat, Sept. 12: Father Tom Uzhunnalil, a Catholic priest from Kerala, has been rescued in Yemen, 18 months after he was abducted by ISIS during a deadly attack on a care home in Aden.
In a major development, a Christian priest from Kerala, Father Tom Uzhunnalil, has been rescued from his ISIS captors in Yemen, reportedly at the intervention of Oman which utilised its influence in Yemen.
The Indian Government — which on Tuesday confirmed he had been rescued — had also said recently that it was working hard to get the priest released.
“I am happy to inform that Father Tom Uzhunnalil has been rescued,” external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted on Tuesday.
An international newswire report from Muscat (Oman) had cited Oman’s official news agency as saying that Oman had secured the release of Fr Tom.
Some media reports from the middle-east said Fr Tom had thanked Oman’s ruler Sultan Qaboos for his release and that he had been flown to Muscat.
Fr Tom was earlier kidnapped in Yemen by suspected ISIS militants on March 4, 2016, after they attacked a care home operated by missionaries in the southern port city of Aden, killing 16 people.
He had, in a video circulated in December last year, purportedly blamed the Indian Government and the Vatican for alleged lack of action in securing his release.
But in January this year, the ministry of external affairs had said that Father Tom Uzhunnalil had been advised by the Indian Government earlier not to go to Yemen as it was too dangerous but that the priest had disregarded the advice and had “made his decision” to go.
Ms Swaraj had told concerned Christian priests who had met her last month that “all efforts are made with utmost urgency by the Government of India and help is sought from governments, organisations, and people who could assist in this process”.
FATHER TOM Uzhunnalil was kidnapped in Yemen by suspected ISIS militants on March 4, 2016, after they attacked a care home operated by missionaries in the southern port city of Aden, killing 16 people.