No Taliban involvement? Kidnapping of Indian woman Judith D’Souza in Kabul was for ransom, say sources
In a major twist in the case of Judith D’Souza, the Indian woman kidnapped last week from Kabul, it has now emerged that she was not abducted by Taliban militants.
New Delhi: In a major twist in the case of Judith D’Souza, the Indian woman kidnapped last week from Kabul, it has now emerged that she was not abducted by Taliban militants.
Sources said that the D’souza, a senior technical adviser with international NGO Aga Khan Foundation, was kidnapped for ransom from outside her office on June 10. And the authorities have so far identified three-four groups suspecting they might have abducted her.
Initially, it was suspected that D’souza was kidnapped by suspected militants in the heart of Kabul. But the latest inputs have forced the authorities to expedite and expand their operation to trace her.
Meanwhile, the government today reiterated that it was working round the clock to secure the release of D’Souza, even as her family wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to urge him to do his utmost to ensure that she is reunited with them at the earliest.
“This is a very delicate matter. Human life is at stake. We are working round the clock. I cannot share details,” Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said in a tweet while responding to a question on what steps the government is taking to rescue the 40-year-old woman from Kolkata.
Official sources said the government was in constant contact with Afghan authorities, and were making every effort to trace D’souza and ensure her release.
In a letter to Modi, her parents Denzil and Gloria, brother Jerome and sister Agnes have said the “brave, thoughtful, generous and compassionate” Dsouza had been working in Afghanistan for the well-being of the Afghan people and “as an ambassador of goodwill from India’s people, participating in the developmental programmes of that country”.
Copies of the letter have been sent to Swaraj, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien.
The family also said the government has reached out to them in “our time of need and anxiety” and Swaraj as well as a Foreign ministry official had spoken to them in the past two days, but they were still awaiting concrete details.