Efforts are on to bring Sr. Sali, the nun belonging to the Missionaries of Charity who escaped an attack on their convent by rebels in Yemen last Thursday, to Djibouti, according to the Chief Minister’s Office.
The Chief Minister had a talk with the nun who has sought asylum in a hospital in Aden. The nun hails from Thodupuzha in Idukki district.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs has appointed a person to follow up on the attack and the abduction of Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, a Salasian priest, from the old age home run by the Missionaries of Charity. The nun, who had kept herself in a dilapidated room of the convent mess during the attack, is the only person who saw the rebels taking away the priest.
Fifteen people, including four nuns, one of them Indian, were killed in the attack on the old age home.
Sr. Sali, the mother superior of the convent, looking through a broken window of the room where she was hiding, saw the rebels tying the hands and legs of Fr. Uzhunnalil and throwing him into a truck and speeding away. However, there is no information so far about Fr. Uzhunnalil, who belongs to Ramapuram in Kottayam district. According to his cousin, Thomas Uzhunnalil, the priest was posted in Bengaluru before he was deputed to Yemen nearly five years back. He was at Ramapuram three months back along with his siblings to participate in the death anniversary of their mother.
Mr. Thomas said he was expecting Salasian priests from Bengaluru at Ramapuram on Sunday night. The priests would also meet the Chief Minister, he said.
The Salasian priests have met the Central government authorities and also the government authorities in West Asian countries in connection with the abduction of Fr. Uzhunnalil.
