Indian engineer returns home after 27-day ordeal in Afghanistan

Mangalore, May 28 (UNI) The Indian engineer Naeem Sarang, who went through a 27-day ordeal after being abducted by a criminal gang in Afghanistan, arrived at his home at Gurukambala near here today.

Naeem, working for a Dubai-Canadian company in a road construction project in remote Adraskan on the Afghanistan-Iran border, was abducted along with a Nepalese colleague when he was returning from a market on April 21.

Speaking to reporters in his residence, the tired 39-year-old said after being abducted the two were blindfolded and dumped in the boot of a car and taken to a wooded place. They were not offered any food but for some black tea and sometimes they had to survived on eating grass and wild berries, he said.

They were liberated by the Afghan police who overpowered the abductors on May 18, he said.

Mr Naeem, an electrical engineer by profession, said the abductors had told the duo, "we don't know how, but we are releasing you. But get out of our country and never return." "We were very lucky to survive as many such abductions in Afghanistan have ended in killings," he said After the release Naeem came to Kabul and contacted the Indian High Commission which shifted the Indian engineer to Delhi. From there he was taken to Mumbai where his family was waiting for him and then all of them traveled in a car and returned home today.

Festive atmosphere prevailed in Gurukambala village where people came home and hugged Naeem and his father, while the engineer's mother Rafat Sultana and her other sons distributed sweets and received visitors.

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