‘They threatened to shoot me if I returned’

Father Alexis Premkumar Antonysamy, who was released from captivity in Afghanistan after eight months, was warned by his captors not to return to the country.

“This time we release you, next time when you come to Afghanistan, we will shoot you,” the captors told Fr. Kumar.

At a press conference here in Loyola College on Thursday, he narrated the final moments in captivity when he was kept chained. Recalling the last words of his captors, Fr. Premkumar said: “I was released in a crossfire and the car that had come to my rescue got damaged.”

Asked whether the captors were Taliban members, he said, “I don’t know, but they claimed they were Taliban.”

Initially, Fr. Kumar maintained that “no money was paid for sure” to secure his release, but when reporters persisted, he said he was not aware of the efforts taken towards his release as he was in captivity. “From the day I was abducted, they said not to worry as fellow teachers from my school were coming with money and so I can go in the evening. But that did not happen. So, I did not know whether it is true,” said Fr. Kumar, who was Afghanistan’s Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) director at the time of his abduction. “After a week, when they shifted place, they told me that the Indian Prime Minister had given $ 20 lakh and I could go but that didn't happen too. Since then, that is since June 15, no one talked about money,” he said.

“Finally, I was told that the South Asia Director of JRS and Taliban leaders in Afghanistan were negotiating and I would be released within a month,” he said, replying to a query.

Though both the Government of India and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) to which he is attached to announced that he was released on Sunday (February 23), Fr. Kumar recalled having been helped by an Indian diplomat on a Friday. “The officer in Kandahar treated me like his friend. It was a Friday and the shops were closed. So, he gave me his own shirts, pants and shoes,” he said.

Though organisations working in the region were under “fear,” the Jesuits had faith in the local people and did not opt for security from the police, he said. JRS is involved in educating refugee children in the region.

Asked if he would return to Afghanistan despite the threat, he said, “I can’t decide anything on my own. If the Society of Jesus wants me to go and if that is God's plan, I am ready to go back.”