Silence after abduction - D'Souza family awaits word

Charu Sudan Kasturi, Chandreyee Ghosh and Jhinuk Mazumdar,TT, June 11: No one looks forward to ransom calls. But for Indian officials trying to ensure the release of Judith D'Souza, the Calcutta aid worker kidnapped in Kabul, the silence today was no less a source of concern Indian officials fidgeted with their phones in New Delhi and Kabul through the day, waiting in vain for Afghanistan's law enforcement agencies to make any breakthrough in their probe into the abduction.

But till this evening, no group had claimed responsibility for the abduction or made any demands in exchange for Judith's release. Three persons Kabul's police had questioned were found unlikely to have had anything to do with the abduction, senior officials said.

Judith's elder brother Jerome, who reached their Entally home this morning from Bangalore where he works with an NGO, said: "We are constantly in touch with officials both in Kabul and India. But we have been told by the authorities in the external affairs ministry to hold on for a while and that is what we are doing. I have full faith in their effort."

He appealed to the Prime Minister's Office through Twitter on Saturday evening: "@PMOIndia Sir it has been nearly 48 hours since my sister Judith was abducted. My family seeks your urgent intervention into the matter."

Neighbours and friends who visited the family said the parents had been crying almost all day in the absence of any information about their daughter.

"My father is not well. Judith's news has left him shattered. I am trying to give my parents and sister as much strength as possible.... I hope my sister is safe," said Jerome, who would talk to Judith every week and also stay connected with her over WhatsApp.

On Friday morning, their father Denzel D'Souza had gone to a private hospital in the city for dialysis, which he needs every week.

Soon after Judith's abduction, Indian officials had told her family in Calcutta and her employers at the Aga Khan Development network to inform them immediately if they received ransom calls, a top diplomat said.

In most cases involving abductions of foreigners in Afghanistan, the group behind the incident contacts the employer or family of the victim - aware that they are likelier to negotiate a ransom agreement than governments.

But by evening, neither the family nor the Aga Khan Development Network had received any call.

That, coupled with the absence of any public claim of responsibility, signals the likelihood of a mid-level criminal group being responsible for the abduction, as opposed to an organised hostage-seeking syndicate or a major militant group, officials and analysts said.

But the few clues that Afghan police have shared with Indian officials suggest that the abductors, while perhaps not belonging to a large group, weren't necessarily amateurs. The abductors, according to what the Afghan police have told Indian officials, were in a car, and were wearing what looked to bystanders like military fatigues.

Officials now suspect that the silence of the abductors may be rooted in a strategy to lie low for a few days while the search and rescue operation is at its peak and make a move once the efforts have eased a bit.

"All of us who know Judith well are really worried," Javed Rizvi, a veteran agricultural scientist with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) who has worked extensively with Judith in Afghanistan, said. "We're just hoping for the best, and urging the Indian government to do all it can to help rescue her."

Rizvi had spoken with Judith three days before she was abducted. Their conversation, apart from professional discussions, also touched - as it almost always did, he said - on security measures. Judith did not indicate any specific threat, beyond the usual concerns that come with living and working in a conflict zone, Rizvi said. She talked about her plans to soon visit Calcutta.

According to Jerome, the embassy officials in Kabul were familiar with Judith. "Judith knew many of the officials at the Indian embassy in Kabul personally because she had attended parties with them and often travelled to India together. So there is no dearth of effort," he said.

Apart from the past one year that she has been in Kabul, Judith would go to the capital city of Afghanistan on assignments for an organisation that she was then working for, her sister Agnes said.

Agnes added that her younger sister never complained about living in Kabul. "She liked what she was doing. Otherwise why would she go back," said Agnes, a teacher at Loreto Convent Entally.

Jerome has asked his friends to keep the demand for his sister's release alive in the social media and some of her friends have formed a Facebook group, Pray for Judith. Friends of Jerome and others are also expressing their solidarity through #bringbackjudith on Facebook.

The family has had a steady stream of visitors. "Our peer group has been giving us the moral support that we needed.... We should not forget Judith," Jerome said.

The Archdiocese of Calcutta on Saturday evening held a candlelight march from Allen Park to the Archbishop's House on Park Street, praying for the release of Judith. The participants sang hymns in English and Bengali during the march.