By: Santosh Digal and Jose Kavi
New Delhi: A video clip circulating on social media on December 26 shows a person claiming to be an Indian priest abducted in Yemen ten months ago blaming racial discrimination for his continued captivity.
Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil was abducted on March 4 by armed men who attacked a home for the elderly managed by the Missionaries of Charity in Aden, Yemen. They killed 16 people, including four nuns, who worked there. They took the 57-year-old priest to an undisclosed place.
Since then, the Indian government and Church authorities have claimed that they were in touch with the priest’s abductors for his release.
As late as on December 25, a top church leader in Middle East said negotiations were on for Father Uzhunnalil’s release. “Unfortunately I do not have news about Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil which I could communicate,” Bishop Paul Hinder said when Matters India contacted him to find out the progress in the negotiations.
The Capuchin prelate heads the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia that covers Oman, United Arab Emirate and Yemen.
However, the person in the new video alleges that nothing has been done by Bishop Hinder, the Indian government or Pope Francis for his release.
“Reports have been in the news that everything is being done to get me released quickly, but in reality nothing seems to have happened. I am very sad and depressed,” says the man with a flowing grey beard and unkempt hair.
He says it was his captors who have “made many contacts with the government of India to get me released” in the past several months.
The man also says his health has deteriorated and that he might need hospitalization soon. “Please come to my help quickly,” he pleads to the Indian and Church authorities, including Pope Francis.
Addressing his fellow Christians, the man alleges Pope Francis and the bishop of Abu Dhabi have done nothing to get him released even after his captors contacting them.
“If I were a European priest I would have been taken more seriously by authorities and people and would have got me released. I am from India and therefore I perhaps am not considered of much value. I am sad about this,” the man in the video laments.
He cited the case of a French woman journalist who was kidnapped in Yemen some time back. She is “today free because she is from France. I am from India and not considered.”
Father Uzhunnalil is a member of the Bangalore province of the Salesians. When contacted, a source in the provincial house told Matters India December 26 that he had seen the video but could not confirm the identity of the man. “He has some resemblance to Fr Tom,” he added.