Jesuit priest Fr. Alexis Premkumar Antonysamy, who reached here on Sunday on being released from the custody of the Taliban, checked into a hotel here, accompanied by security personnel and senior government functionaries. His close family members are expected to join him.
“His family members would board a flight from Chennai to Delhi at 8.30 p.m.,” said Fr. Mathew Koyickal, community leader who was among those who received him at the airport. Senior government officials were present.
“He thanked millions of people of all the religions who prayed for his release,” said Fr. Susai Sebastian of the Archdiocese of Delhi.
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Sources said officials had been monitoring the case, coordinating with Afghanistan officials and the Governor’s office in Herat. Shortly after the priest’s abduction from a refugee centre in Zenda Jan, Governor Sayed Fazulllah Wahidi had said he had established his whereabouts.
A few days after the June 2 abduction, Afghan agencies arrested three suspected Taliban members.
The government kept up its efforts in the matter, also urged on by the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalitha. In a letter to Ms. Jayalalithaa on June 12, 2014, Mr. Modi said the National Security Adviser had spoken to his Afghan counterpart, and the Ambassador to Afghanistan, Amar Sinha, was in close touch with the President’s office over the issue.
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In November, officials said Fr. Alexis was safe, but the negotiations for his release were still ongoing. Afghan officials told The Hindu that they felt the abduction was a misunderstanding by the Taliban group holding him, as Fr. Alexis was not involved in conversions, but working to rehabilitate Afghan refugees who had returned from Iran and Pakistan.
Fr. Premkumar had been working as the director of the Afghanistan wing of the Jesuit Refugee Service.