PNN/Agencies
New Delhi / Kendrapara, Sept 17: One of the two Indians who were abducted in war-torn Libya, has managed to flee from captivity and has established contact with his family in Orissa and a friend.
Pravash Ranjan Samal, a biomedical engineer, escaped from his captors and conveyed to one of his friends that he was fine, sources in Delhi said.
The Union ministry of external affairs is yet to confirm the news of his release. However, a source said: “The Indian ambassador to Libya, AzarAH Khan, has informed that according to the information he got from another Indian, Samal has been released.”
Samal (48) and Ramamurthy Kosanam, of Andhra Pradesh, were abducted reportedly a few days ago from Ibn-e-Sina in Sirte where they were working. Sources said efforts are on to secure the release of Kosanam.
However, Samal’s family members Thursday said they received a phone call from him saying he has been “released”. “Pravash called his elder sister-in-law Manasi Nayak in the afternoon while she was in her husband’s government quarters behind Plantsite police station in Rourkela,” Pravash’s elder brother Bibhu Padarabinda Nayak said in Rourkela.
Nayak said Manasi was surprised and overjoyed on hearing from Pravash and sobbed inconsolably. “Though he said he has been released, he sounded tense and stammered and faltered while speaking,” Nayak said.
Pravash said the militants have released him after making him sign a bond. He reportedly said he is safe in someone else’s house and was using someone else’s phone.
“The call lasted for less than three minutes. It was made from an unknown number that has been switched off since then. He cried like a child and pleaded with us to request the Indian government to rescue him from the inhospitable alien land,” said Nayak.
“I was told by a friend Wednesday evening about my elder brother’s disappearance from his workplace. It was a bolt from the blue,” said Pravash’s younger brother, Bikram.
