M A I N   N E W S

Hostages safe, Kuwaiti firm talks to kidnappers
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 24
National Security Adviser J.N. Dixit today said the government was making all efforts for securing the release of three Indian hostages in Iraq, while External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh met the father of one of the hostages, Antaryami, and assured him that the crisis would be resolved peacefully.

Mr Natwar Singh, who maintained that the government was making all efforts, made a significant remark while talking to reporters after meeting Antaryami’s father when he said: "We are working behind the scenes and we are hopeful that the crisis will be resolved peacefully".

The Minister said he had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning and had discussed it with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The abductors have already extended by 48 hours their deadline of carrying out their threat of starting beheading one captive every 72 hours. The original deadline was to expire at 8 pm on Saturday (IST). The captors are now demanding paying of damages to families of victims of Fallujah and the release of Iraqi detainees from American and Kuwait prisons.

Mr Dixit told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) that the government was in touch with governments of Iraq and Kuwait and their representatives in Delhi as also US Embassy, he said.

In a memorandum to the Minister, the father of hostage Antaryami sought immediate assistance for the safe return of his son and the other hostage Tilak Raj whose mother is in a serious condition being unconscious ever since news came of her son being taken hostage.

Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, which employed the Indians, said it was in touch with the kidnappers and was confident that they would be released very soon. "We have managed to contact these kidnappers. I guess it will be resolved very, very soon," Rana Abu-Zaineh, the company’s manpower planning manager, said

"We don’t want to jeopardise their lives while saying any extra word," the company official said. Abu-Zaineh said the Indian hostages were very much safe and sound. He declined to comment when asked about the kidnappers’ latest demands.

Meanwhile, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam today assured the relatives and neighbours of two of the three Indian nationals held hostage in Iraq that efforts were on to secure their safe release.

The relatives and neighbours of the two victims — Antaryami and Tilak Raj from Una district of Himachal Pradesh — were part of an 11-member delegation which called on the President to seek his intervention for the safe return of the three drivers kidnapped in Iraq.

Mr Ram Murthi father of Antaryami, also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.