NEW DELHI/KOLKATA, India – A 40-year-old social worker, Judith D’ Souza, from Kolkata was abducted by suspected militants in Kabul.
A 40-year-old women from Kolkata state, who was working for an international non-profit organisation in Afghanistan, was kidnapped by suspected militants outside her Kabul office late on Thursday evening, Indian and Afghan officials and her family said. The Indian government is making efforts to secure her release, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said.
Judith D’Souza (40), working as a senior technical advisor on gender with the Aga Khan Developmental Network in Kabul was abducted from Taimani area along with two other persons yesterday evening. Judith was scheduled to return to India next week for her annual holiday, her family said at their CIT Road, Entally home. She had been working in Afghanistan for the past one year.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said government was doing everything to rescue her.
“Our embassy is in touch with senior Afghan authorities and the government is also in touch with her family in Kolkata. All efforts are being made by the Afghan authorities to secure her early release,” an official source said in New Delhi.
Judith’s father Denzel D’Souza said in Kolkata that the family received information that three persons – Judith, a security guard and the driver of the vehicle, were abducted. “External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj rang up and spoke to me and assured that the government is making all-out efforts to bring her back,” Judith’s sister Agnes D’Souza said.
Responding to a tweet by one of Judith’s family members, Swaraj said “She is your sister and India’s daughter. We are doing everything to rescue her. Pl take care of your sick father.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for her abduction.
Chief Executive of Aga Khan Trust for Culture, India, Ratish Nanda said every effort is being made to secure her safe release. “On Thursday, June 9, a staff member of the Aga Khan Foundation was abducted. An investigation by the authorities has been launched, in conjunction with security officials and various partners. Every effort is being made to secure the safe release of the staff member,” he said in a statement in New Delhi.
The family, Denzel said, received information about the abduction in the early hours of the day. “We received a call around 1-30 a.m. by the Embassy officials. We were told that three persons have been abducted – my daughter, the driver and the security guard. Thereafter, there has been no news, and no phone calls from the government. We are all very tense and anxious. We just want her to return safely home,” said Denzel.
“We are now waiting. We hope that the government does something and gets my sister back,” Agnes said, adding the Afghanistan government should also take steps to trace her. “Just two days back she called us from Afghanistan. She said that she would return to Kolkata on June 12 for her annual holidays. She never said that her life was at risk. We did not get any phone calls since 1-30 a.m. last night. Our friends, her colleagues in Delhi are trying to get in touch with the Centre. We are also getting in touch with the state government,” she said.
For the past year, Judith has been working for the Aga Khan Foundation in Afghanistan. Prior to that, she worked for various NGOs and organisations in Kolkata and Delhi.
Family members said that the last time Judith had visited home was over two months ago. But at no point of time had she ever indicated she faced any threats to her life.
Trinamul Congress member of Parliement Derek O’Brien said he spoke to the family of the abducted woman and contacted External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
In 2013, another woman from Kolkata, Sushmita Banerjee, daughter of educated middle-class parents, was shot dead by the Taliban in Paktika in Afghanistan, where she lived with her Pathan husband Jaanbaz and his family. Banerjee, who had married Jaanbaz, a “kabuliwallah (Afghan money lender)” in Kolkata, defying her parents, braved numerous odds to make rugged Afghanistan her home. The social worker, who ran a pharmacy for women in her village in Afghanistan, authored four books about her life in a “strange land”. The Taliban targeted Banerjee for her liberal views on women’s welfare- and modern ways. She was picked up one night, interrogated for three hours and shot 20 times.
