Father Tom has been missing since armed men attacked a charity house in Yemen on March 4
Highlights
- Father Tom Uzhunnalil missing in Yemen since early this month.
- Priest is missing since an attack on charity home in Yemen on March 4.
- Making all efforts to rescue Kerala priest, says Sushma Swaraj.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said that Indian priest Father Tom Uzhunnalil, missing in Yemen since early this month, has been abducted by a terror group and the government is making all efforts to rescue him.
Father Tom has been missing since armed men attacked an old people's home run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Yemen, killing 16 people, including four nuns, one of them an Indian, on March 4.On Friday, a spokesperson for the Salesians, Bengaluru, to which Father Tom Uzhuannalil belongs, rejected as "rumours" reports that terror group ISIS had abducted the priest and had threatened to crucify him on Good Friday.
"No group has claimed responsibility yet...These rumours are spread from quite some time...We don't know if it is true," Father Methew Valarkot said.
Speaking to NDTV, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the priest is reportedly safe. "According to the information we are now beginning to receive, the Father seems to be safe and we are hoping for the same. We have been reaching out to Union Minister Sushma Swaraj for her intervention and have shared with her some leads we received from Abu Dhabi church congregation regarding father Tom," he said.
Father Eugene Perera, Vicar General of Archdiocese Trivandrum, told NDTV, "The Church is very much wounded and affected about these incidents. It's not only about Father Tom alone, but 16 others, including nuns who were killed. There are people who have been brutally murdered and they were only working for humanity."