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Release my son, pleads father of abducted engineer

In happier times: Kidnapped engineer Sarang Mohammad Naeem with his wife and children.

MANGALORE: “Mere bete ko chuda do” was the impassioned plea made here on Wednesday by Mohammad Hussain Sarang, father of Sarang Mohammad Naeem who was abducted in Afghanistan.

Mr. Naeem (39), an electrical engineer, was abducted by an unknown group in the Herat province of Afghanistan on Monday. The family learnt about it on Tuesday.

Mr. Naeem, who has been working in Afghanistan for the past five years, quit his job in a five-star hotel and joined HEB International Logistics at the Kabul air base three months ago.

Mr. Hussain told presspersons who came to his residence, “Sarang House”, at Gurukambla, near here, that his son had come home in January and left for Kabul via Mumbai to take up his new assignment on January 29. “He used to keep in regular touch with us over phone. I spoke to him a day before the abduction,” he said.

It was Sunil Shetty, who Mr. Hussain believes is a director with the firm in which his son works, who called to break the news to the family. It was Mr. Hussain himself who attended the call. “We later saw the news being flashed on television channels,” he said.

Mr. Hussain has not got any official confirmation of the incident even 48 hours after the incident. But the local police have contacted him seeking details about his son.

Mr. Hussain’s eyes turned moist when he was showing a group photograph of his son, his daughter-in-law, Rafat Sultana, and grandchildren Ambar, Rumana and Mohammad Ali. Mr. Naeem got married 13 years ago.

Mr. Hussain said it was he who had conveyed the news to his daughter-in-law, who is at her parents’ house at Saki Naka in Mumbai, with her children.

Basheer Ahmad Baji, a relative of Mr. Hussain, said that there had been no word either from the company or from Mr. Naeem’s abductors.

“We have been trying his mobile number almost continuously. But there is no answer. We have sent an e-mail to the Indian Embassy in this regard,” he said.

Mr. Naeem, who is one of the five children of Mr. Hussain and Chand Sultana, did his diploma in electrical engineering from the Industrial Training Institute in Moodbidri. He was issued a passport on January 12, 2001.

“He was scheduled to come to India in June to attend his sister-in-law’s wedding in Mumbai,” Mr. Hussain said.

Inspector-General of Police (Western Range) Ashit Mohan Prasad said that the police had gathered preliminary information about Mr. Naeem and it was being forwarded to the Ministry of External Affairs.

“We are also trying to get details of the incident from the Ministry of External Affairs,” he said.

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