A Keralite has escaped from the captivity of Al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants in the Philippines.
K. Biju, belonging to Kappad in Kozhikode, managed to give his captors the slip after 13 months in captivity in a forest and reached a nearby village. The police later took him to their headquarters in Manila and informed the Indian Embassy.
Mr. Biju was spending a holiday in the Philippines with his Filipino wife and two children in June last year when militants kidnapped him for ransom. There were reports that the militants had killed him as his family had refused to pay the ransom.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy urged the Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi on Friday to facilitate Mr. Biju’s return to Kerala at the earliest. The Chief Minister spoke to Mr. Biju over phone.
Keywords: Philippines, al-Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf gang
The poor fellow was allowed to suffer under the custody of his captors as he had no political or bureaucratic or journalistic connections and clouts that could highlight his plight. So despite being in captivity for such a long time his story was unknown to many Indians. If the hostage were to be even a well-connected of a top politician/bureaucrat/journalist it would have made headlines for many days in both print and visual media and there would have been hue and cry on government’s inaction to intervene. It appears that now with his own effort Biju managed to come out of captivity and it has become news for media. For the same media to whom Biju being hostage for such a long time was not a news, his escape has all of a sudden become a news! What travesty of justice and journalistic ethics.
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