2 Indian nationals kidnapped in Nigeria

Visakhapatnam, July 1: Suspected terrorists have kidnapped two Indian nationals from Gboko, a town in the Benue state of north-central Nigeria, family members of one of them here said on Thursday.

Mangipudi Sai Srinivas who hails from Visakhapatnam and his colleague Anish Sharma were reportedly kidnapped yesterday. Srinivas's relatives approached the district collector N Yuvaraj today, requesting him to take steps for their release.

Sharma and Srinivas were travelling to Dangote Cement Plc Plant in a car from their residential quarters at around 7.20 pm on Wednesday when a group of armed men kinapped them at a traffic signal.

Srinivas's wife M Lalitha said he is a civil engineer and has been working for Dangote Cement in Gboko for the last three years. Before that he worked with Aditya Birla group in Raipur.

"I tried to reach my husband on Wednesday but could not contact him. I called up the officials of the Plant this morning and they informed me about kidnapping," she said.

Collector N Yuvaraj said that Nigerian authorities had launched a search operation, and the district administration had contacted the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian embassy in Nigeria about the development.

PTI