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July 31, 2015
Four Indians in Libya kidnapped
NEW DELHI: Four Indians, including three teachers, have been kidnapped by militants in Libya, it was reported on Friday. All the four were employed at the University of Sirte, a public university in the city of Sirte located between Tripoli and Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast in Libya, which has also a campus in Hun, a small town in the southwest of the country.

ISIS militants are suspected to be behind the kidnapping.

Two of the kidnapped are from Hyderabad and two from Karnataka, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesman, Vikas Swarup, said. The families of abducted Indians have been informed of the development.

The MEA is in the process of finding out more details through its mission in Tripoli, he said. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have also been informed of the kidnapping.

The new incident comes in the backdrop of the kidnapping of 39 Indians in June 11 last year from Mosul in Iraq. Their whereabouts are still a mystery. They were kidnapped by the Islamic State militants.

Even as the Government claims that all those kidnapped labourers hailing mostly from Punjab are still alive, Harjeet Masih (26), the lone Indian who escaped from the clutches of the ISIS militants in Iraq, had recently disclosed that all the 39 Indians had been "shot dead".

The Indian Government repeatedly issues travel advisories warning Indians against travel to specified conflict areas abroad for whatever reasons.

However, quoting third party sources, the Government had affirmed early this week that the 39 Indians held hostage in Mosul town were safe and that efforts were on to secure their release.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh had said the Government was in "close and regular" contact with the Iraqi Government to find out the whereabouts of those kidnapped.

Senior officials have been stationed in Erbil in Kurdistan Autonomous Region of Iraq to liaison with the Government authorities there. Sushma Swaraj had personally sought help from the Gulf Cooperation Council and other countries to help find the Indian nationals.


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