Tom Uzhunnalil, the Catholic priest who was freed from Islamic State captivity on September 12, visited the city to give testimony of his ordeal on Tuesday.
Father Uzhunnalil led a mass along with 38 other priests at St. Theresa’s church, Sanathnagar. He also spoke to the congregation for an hour, asking believers to trust in God even during the worst circumstances.
Speaking to The Hindu , he said, “Two days before my release on September 12, my captors came to me and said I will soon be free. That’s when I realised I could get out. Till then I did think either about getting released or about imminent death”.
It was his surrender to God’s will that helped him survive, he added. “I was spared to preach about God’s presence in our lives. I will continue to do that,” the priest, who lost 30 kg during his 18-month captivity, asserted.
The Salesian priest, who hails from Kottayam in Kerala, was taken hostage by the terror outfit in Aden, Yemen, on March 4, 2016. He was working at an old age home run by the Sisters of the missionaries of Charity of St. Mother Theresa in Aden. The IS militants, who attacked the home, caught him unawares, he said.
“I was there for morning service. The old age home had about 80 inmates. Five nuns, including two from India, and 12 workers were also present there. I could not have left any of them alone and did not try to escape,” he said.
In the attack, four nuns were killed. “I witnessed most things with horror. But, in captivity, I neither cried nor begged for release,” Father Uzhunnalil said. He had started working in Yemen in 2010.
Before that, he had worked in Kerala and Karnataka.
He studied telecommunication technology and was working in Church-run Indian Institutes of Technologies. He was ordained in 1990.
Asked how his captors treated him, the priest said they were “gentle enough”. “They offered me food and water. I was not assaulted,” he added. Would he go back to Yemen? “I will if I am asked to,” he replied.
Many members of the parish was seen taking blessings from the priest.
