Professors return to Hyderbad after 414 days in ISIS captivity

Miss Alone

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After spending 414 days in captivity of alleged operatives of the Islamic State (IS), two city professors - T Gopalakrishna and Ch Balram Kishan - returned to their homes in Hyderabad early Saturday morning.
Accompanied by officials of the ministry of external affairs (MEA), Gopalakrishna and Balram landed at Shamshabad airport at 2am, from where they were taken to their respective residences after a medical check-up. Their arrival was kept a secret by ministry officials.
The duo, who taught at Sirte University in Libya, was abducted by IS operatives while driving to Tripoli to board a flight to India on July 29, 2015. Two other Indians, Lakshmikanth and Vijay Kumar from Karnataka, who were also abducted with them, were later released. Gopalakrishna had been teaching computer science at Sirte since 2012 and Balram English since 2009.
While MEA announced on September 15 that the professors had been rescued, they had to be held back in Tripoli for some more time to complete the required documentation process. They reached Delhi on Friday night.
Speaking to TOI from his home in Alwal, Balram said: "I am extremely elated to be back home and be with my loved ones. There are no words to express my happiness. I thank the MEA for ensuring our safe return to India."
His colleague Gopalakrishna, a resident of Nacharam, expressed similar sentiments but added that the reality of meeting his two children and wife was yet to sink in.

Recalling the horrors of the last 14 months, either spent confined in a dingy room or in a van, the two said they lived in constant fear of not seeing their families ever again. "We never imagined that we would come out of that place alive. Though we were hoping against hope that somebody would come to our rescue, we weren't sure if our prayers would indeed be answered," Balram added.
The duo, however, refused to share details of the rescue operation and claimed that they still do not know for sure just who their abductors were. "After we were rescued and brought to the Indian Embassy in Tripoli, we were interrogated about what had happened to us. It is there that we were told not to speak to anyone about how we were rescued," Gopalakrishna confessed.
 
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