KOTTAYAM: The family of Father Tom Uzhunnalil, the Salesian priest who was abducted by the ISIS, has alleged that the Government of India is not able to effectively intervene in conducting negotiations to get the priest freed as the Indian embassy in Yemen is dysfunctional after it was closed more than a year ago.
Moreover, the family is clueless about the latest developments with regard to negotiations to free the priest. Fr Tom was allegedly abducted from Aden city in Yemen. It will be three months on June 4 since the terrorists abducted Father Tom. His relatives have no information, except that the Archbishop of Abu Dhabi is involved in negotiations.
Meanwhile, the family of Father Tom at Vadakkumbhagom near Ramapuram is restless on not getting any intimation about the developments. Mr U.V. Mathew, the elder brother of the priest, now lives at the home at Vadakkum-bhgom near Ramapuram.
“We have no information and the government has not intimated us regarding the developments,” Mr Mathew told this newspaper. The only consolation for the family came when the Government of India and the Salesian congregation confirmed that the priest was alive.
Father Tom went to Yemen in 2010 inspired by the work of late Father Mathew Uzhunnalil, his uncle who has doing his ministry as a Salesian priest for 15 years in Yemen. Father Tom visited his house at Ramapuram in September 2014 for the funeral of his mother, and stayed here for at least two months.
The terrorists who abducted Father Tom had killed 16 inmates at the Missionaries of Charity destitute home in Yemen before abducting him on March 4 at 8.30 am, where the priest was working for five years. Four nuns, including one from India, succumbed in the terrorist attack.
