PANJIM: The All India Catholic Union (AICU) has called on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use the country’s and his own goodwill with nations of the Middle East in negotiating the freedom of Salesian priest Fr Tom Uzhunnalil from captivity in Yemen.
The All India Catholic Union earlier this week had written to Modi expressing the distress of the Christian community on the delay in getting Fr Tom released from Islamic State forces that had captured them in an attack on an old people’s home in Yemen. An Indian nun of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity was among four religious women killed in that attack.
“The priest in a recent video released by his captors had pleaded that as an Indian citizen, he was suffering while Western persons captured by the IS had been released. We seek your personal intervention and assistance in seeing that he returns safe to his homeland India as soon as possible,” said All India Catholic Union National President, Lancy Da Cunha.
“In the complex situation in the region, we feel the Government of India, with its tremendous reserves of influence and goodwill in many countries of the Middle East, is the best positioned for effective intervention in getting Fr Tom’s release from captivity,” he said.
