Bengaluru/Raichur/Tumakuru: It was a sleepless night for Sunitha Vijaykumar, 38, wife of Vijay Kumar, who was one of the four Indians detained by the Islamic State militants on July 29. The housewife, a mother of two, is now relieved after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed to her that her husband was released on Friday evening.
Sunitha and her two sons, Suhas V. (19) and Siddarth (14), who stay in at their new residence in Kormangala 6th Block, were shocked when a senior staff from the university called in from Sirte, Libya around 10 pm on Thursday to tell them that Vijay Kumar had been detained at the Islamic State controlled area near Tripoli.
Vijay Kumar and three other faculty at the varsity were on their way to the airport to head to India on Wednesday night when they were detained around 11 p.m., said Mr Hemant Kumar, Vijay Kumar’s brother. Vijay Kumar is the Head of English Department, Faculty of Education at the Ministry of Higher Education in Sirte University, Libya. Sunitha and her sons spent the entire night calling up their relatives. On Friday, they headed to Sunitha’s village in Arasikere in Hassan where they went to their family temple, Hemant Kumar said.
Hemant, 55, who stays in Vivekananda Nagar in Bangarpet, Kolar, said that he informed the jurisdictional police and Tahsildar Vijayan, who later notified the Deputy Commissioner. The DC sent Special Deputy Commissioner Peddapaiah to visit the house of Vijay Kumar and spoke to his family members.
On Friday evening, the entire family was relieved when they got a call from the MEA, New Delhi, confirming that the two teachers from Karnataka were released. “We were told by an officer from the Union ministry that two teachers from Karnataka have been released and one of them was Vijay Kumar and that both were safe. We are in the process of arranging their travel to India, and we will be informed of any further updates,” Hemant Kumar told Deccan Chronicle. “We were also told that Vijay Kumar will leave Libya on Saturday morning and he is expected to reach Bengaluru on Sunday morning,” he said.
“Vijay Kumar had told his family about problems non-Muslims faced in Libya. There are certain IS controlled regions that they have to pass through while they move from one place to another and threats against non-Muslims are common. Vijay and a few other teachers were planning to come to India for good last year itself, but were forced to stay for another year by University authorities as they sensed trouble for non-Muslims who were trying to leave the country. This year, they somehow convinced the university authorities, resigned from their jobs and were on their way to the airport after settling of their dues when they were detained,” said Hemant Kumar.
‘Taxi driver narrated the incident to us’
The wife and parents of Lakshmikanth, an assistant professor at Sirte University in Libya, were happy that he was released by ISIS terrorist after abduction. Mr Lakshmikanth is the son of a retired bank officer, Ramakrishna.
Lakshmikanth’s wife Prathibha told Deccan Chronicle that the terrorists kidnapped her husband and three other Indians from a taxi, while sending back the driver. “The taxi driver contacted us from my husband’s mobile phone, which had fallen inside the vehicle, and narrated the sequence of events to us,” she said.
Mr Lakshmikanth completed his MSc (Instrumentation Technology) from the Yeragera Postgraduate centre near Raichur and got his PhD (Applied Electronics) from Gulbarga University. He was working at Sirte University for the last seven years. Ms Prathibha stayed with her husband for a couple years in Libya before returning to India in August last year.
Happy our son is safe: Vijay’s parents
“Finally, our belief in God and, continuous prayers for the safe release of my elder son, M.S. Vijay Kumar, has not gone waste. We are happy that my son has been released by ISIS extremists in Libya,” said Mr Srinivasulu, a retired sub-inspector.
“As soon as we heard about his abduction, we tried to contact him, but failed to get any information. Sometime later, a few officials contacted us and assured us that Vijay Kumar had been released and that he was safe,” said Vijay Kumar’s mother Rathnamma.
