New Delhi: Catholic bishops in India have expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for securing the release of a Jesuit priest who was kidnapped in Afghanistan nearly nine months ago.

Father Alexis Prem Kumar arrived in New Delhi Sunday evening after he was released from Taliban militants.

Church groups, including his conferrers, were taken by surprise as the Jesuit’s release was kept as a secret until he boarded the plane for India.

The prime minister was the first to announce the release through a tweet Sunday afternoon.

Father Kumar, a member of the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS), was working in western Herat province when gunmen took him into custody on June 2, 2014.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) said it welcomed the news with joy. “The CBCI also wishes to express its gratitude to the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, for the efforts taken by him personally and for the many steps adopted by the various agencies of the Government of India to secure the safe release of Fr. Alexis Prem,” said a press release from the conference on Monday, signed by the CBCI spokesperson Father Joseph Chinnayyan.

The press release noted that CBCI President Cardinal Baselios Cleemis had on June 4 sought the prime minister’s urgent intervention for Father Kumar’s safe release. The conference also thanked all those who helped for the priest’s safe release “either through prayer or through sustained negotiation.”

Fr Kumar’s safe return to India was a diplomatic coup for the Modi government that had come under severe criticism for allegedly ignoring recent attacks on Christians, especially vandalism of churches in the national capital.

On his arrival at the airport, Fr Kumar, 47, thanked the prime minister profusely for taking personal interest in his welfare and release.

“This is because our Prime Minister Narendra Modi (that) I am here. He saved me,” Fr Kumar told reporters after arriving at the Delhi airport. He said the prime minister had spoken to him when he was at the Kabul Airport. “Possibly, he took a lot of interest in rescuing me,” Kumar told Earlier, the announcement of the release of the 47-year-old private aid worker from Tamil Nadu was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through tweets.

Modi had tweeted that he was delighted at securing the priest’s release from captivity.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told reporters that the matter of the Jesuit priest’s release had been “pursued by our leadership, including at the highest levels by the prime minister.”

Fr Kumar has been staying at Ashok Hotel ever since his arrival in Delhi. His relatives have come to meet him.

Akbaruddin expressed India’s “deep gratitude to all those who worked tirelessly over the last eight months to help in this humanitarian task of ensuring the safe release of one of our citizens.”

At the time of his abduction, Prem Kumar was working with the Jesuit Refugee Service, an international NGO, and was engaged in the educational field in Afghanistan. He was its Afghanistan Director and had been in the country for over three years.

He had accompanied teachers on a visit to a JRS-supported school for returnee refugees in Sohadat village, 25-km from the city of Herat. He was kidnapped from the school as he was about to return to Herat, the JRS had said then.

Before moving to Afghanistan, Kumar had worked for the JRS, serving Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu. Four days after the abduction, Afghan authorities had announced that three Taliban members had been arrested in connection with the case.