In a dramatic turn of events, two of the four Indians feared to have been taken into Islamic State custody in the Libyan city of Sirte were released by their captors. The four men — Gopi Krishna Tiruveedula, a professor in computer science, and his colleague Balram from Hyderabad, who are still in custody; and > Lakshmikanth and Vijaykumar from Karnataka, who are safe—were all employed as faculty at the University of Sirte.
They had been trying to leave the city, which was taken over by the dreaded terror group Islamic State (IS) earlier this year, when they went missing. “Our Mission in Tripoli came to know that four Indian nationals, who were returning to India via Tripoli and Tunis, were detained at a checkpoint approximately 50 kms from Sirte,” the ministry of external affairs said in a statement.
The announcement sent shockwaves in India, as the IS is known for its brutal treatment and showing no mercy to hostages. In February this year, IS terrorists released a horrifying video of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians being shot and beheaded. The 21 men were labourers from Egypt who had been kidnapped from Sirte. The incident came even as a document purportedly from IS released by a U.S. media group showed militants threatening an “armageddon-like” war on India, calling on ‘jehadi groups’ in Afghanistan and Pakistan to unite against India.
However, the release of two Indian men by Friday evening raised hopes that they were not being held by IS but another militia group manning the checkpoint outside Sirte. In a tweet External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj wrote: “I am happy we have been able to secure the release of Lakshmikant and Vijay Kumar. Trying for other two.” The Professors from Hyderabad are also held by an unidentified group outside the Libyan city of Sirte. A senior official, who spoke to the men said they “will be returning to India soon,” but added it would be best not to publish details until they had word of the release of the other two men.
Officials told The Hindu that the news of the four Indians posed several problems for the government. To begin with, it was unclear which group held the men. Sirte is the hometown of Libya’s slain former leader Muammar Gaddafi, and his followers, who are allied to IS to run much of the city. There are also “splinter groups”, security officials said, that may have taken the men in custody. Secondly, the group that now controls the Libyan capital of Tripoli, ‘Fajr Libya’, or ‘Libyan Dawn, is not recognised internationally, and the Indian government could not make official contact with them. India maintains only a small mission in Tripoli with Charge d’Affaires Mohammad Rashid Khan, and a few security personnel staffing it, and monitors the situation through the Embassy in Tunisia.
With news of the feared abduction by IS, the government worked through “various sources,” and the MEA team coordinated by Secretary (East) Anil Wadhwa, who had worked on securing the release of Kerala nurses from Iraq last year. Sources said they were not in direct negotiations with the captors of the four men in Libya, but that officials of the University of Sirte, along with the “skeletal staff” in Tripoli, were helping to secure the release of the four academics.
The incident brings into question the larger problem for the government of Indian nationals who continue to live in and travel to areas of major conflict despite clear advisories issued by the government. In this case, the University of Sirte had been closed since February this year, when dozens of IS men over-ran its campus. Officials said they were told the four men stayed back in order to clear their dues with the university. “Despite making every effort to bring Indians out of Libya at considerable risk, there are still more than 2,000 Indians estimated to be living there.” Any one of those Indians could risk falling into the hands of IS, another official added. For the moment the families of the two men still held captive await news of their release, and the families of the men released await their return home.
