Indian woman abducted from heart of Kabul
Kabul/ New Delhi: June 11, 2016, DHNS
An Indian woman working for an international NGO was kidnapped in Kabul, officials said on Friday, the latest in a wave of abductions of foreigners in Afghanistan.
Indian Embassy officials told that the woman, Judith D’Souza, a resident of Kolkata, was kidnapped on Thursday night from near her home in Kabul’s Qalai Fatullah area along with two others.
Judith (40) is a senior technical adviser at the Aga Khan Foundation, a well-known NGO long based in Afghanistan, and was scheduled to return to India next week.
The abduction comes after Katherine Jane Wilson, a well-known Australian NGO worker, was kidnapped on April 28 in the city of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan.
In February, New Delhi managed to secure release of Jesuit priest Father Prem Kumar from the captivity of Taliban. Prem Kumar, who hailed from Tamil Nadu, was kidnapped from Herat in Afghanistan in June 2014.
Aid workers in particular have increasingly been casualties of a surge in militant violence from outfits which are mostly based in Pakistan.
Judith’s family sought help from the government through the social media. Responding to the tweet, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said: “She is your sister and India’s daughter. We are doing everything to rescue her. Pl take care of your sick father.”
The Aga Khan Foundation stated: “An investigation by the authorities has been launched, in conjunction with security officials and various partners. Every effort is being made to secure the safe release of the staff member.”
DHNS & Agencies
Judith was unhappy with security
One of Judith D’Souza’s last posts on Facebook questions the security provided to her at Afghanistan, DHNS reports from Kolkata.
The aid worker from Kolkata shared a strip from the popular cartoon series Peanuts on June 3. “Snoopy is a better guard than what we have here in Kabul”, she wrote.
This, however, found no reflection in her conversations with her family back home, with whom she spoke almost every day. Judith never spoke of any danger to herself, said sister Agnes and father Denzel.
“She has worked in several countries, mostly in Southeast Asia. This is the first time such a thing has happened,” said Agnes. Judith, a 40-year-old gender specialist, has been working at Kabul on women empowerment since July 2015 with the Aga Khan Foundation.
“She called every night and there was never any hint she might have been in danger. We had long conversations. The last time she called was on Wednesday,” said Denzel. A pall of gloom and anxiety had set in over the family’s modest apartment at Entally in south-central Kolkata.
Indian Embassy officials told that the woman, Judith D’Souza, a resident of Kolkata, was kidnapped on Thursday night from near her home in Kabul’s Qalai Fatullah area along with two others.
Judith (40) is a senior technical adviser at the Aga Khan Foundation, a well-known NGO long based in Afghanistan, and was scheduled to return to India next week.
The abduction comes after Katherine Jane Wilson, a well-known Australian NGO worker, was kidnapped on April 28 in the city of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan.
In February, New Delhi managed to secure release of Jesuit priest Father Prem Kumar from the captivity of Taliban. Prem Kumar, who hailed from Tamil Nadu, was kidnapped from Herat in Afghanistan in June 2014.
Aid workers in particular have increasingly been casualties of a surge in militant violence from outfits which are mostly based in Pakistan.
Judith’s family sought help from the government through the social media. Responding to the tweet, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said: “She is your sister and India’s daughter. We are doing everything to rescue her. Pl take care of your sick father.”
The Aga Khan Foundation stated: “An investigation by the authorities has been launched, in conjunction with security officials and various partners. Every effort is being made to secure the safe release of the staff member.”
DHNS & Agencies
Judith was unhappy with security
One of Judith D’Souza’s last posts on Facebook questions the security provided to her at Afghanistan, DHNS reports from Kolkata.
The aid worker from Kolkata shared a strip from the popular cartoon series Peanuts on June 3. “Snoopy is a better guard than what we have here in Kabul”, she wrote.
This, however, found no reflection in her conversations with her family back home, with whom she spoke almost every day. Judith never spoke of any danger to herself, said sister Agnes and father Denzel.
“She has worked in several countries, mostly in Southeast Asia. This is the first time such a thing has happened,” said Agnes. Judith, a 40-year-old gender specialist, has been working at Kabul on women empowerment since July 2015 with the Aga Khan Foundation.
“She called every night and there was never any hint she might have been in danger. We had long conversations. The last time she called was on Wednesday,” said Denzel. A pall of gloom and anxiety had set in over the family’s modest apartment at Entally in south-central Kolkata.
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