India on Friday said Afghanistan Government has got some “concrete leads” in connection with the abduction of Indian aid worker Alexis Prem Kumar in Herat five days ago as investigations were on in the case in which three Taliban terrorists have been arrested.
“Afghanistan has conveyed to India that they have come across some ‘concrete leads’ in the case and they have shared these leads with us,” the spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said.
He added, Afghanistan was working on “all fronts” to rescue 47-year-old Kumar but refrained from giving more details, saying it was a sensitive matter and the life of a human being was at stake. The Afghan Interior Ministry had said on Thursday three Taliban members were arrested by Afghan security forces in connection with the abduction of Kumar and their questioning was on to get information about the hideouts of the victim. Incidentally, no group has far claimed responsibility for the abduction.
The spokesperson has already denied that Kumar had any connection with Indian Government amidst local reports here that the aid worker was associated with the Indian mission.
“He is an Indian national who was working with an NGO. He had no connection with the Indian Government or Mission or Consulate,” he has said. A native of Tamil Nadu, Kumar was working with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), a Christian missionary group, as its Afghanistan Director and has been in the war-torn country for over three years.
Before moving to Afghanistan, Kumar had worked for the JRS, serving Sri lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu. Kumar was abducted from Sohadat village, 25 km from Herat.
His abduction comes nearly 10 days after the attack on the Indian consulate in Herat by four heavily-armed gunmen carrying rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. The attackers were subsequently killed by the security forces on May 23.
A few days before the missionary’s abduction, the Indian mission in Herat had on May 29 issued an advisory asking its nationals to exercise extreme caution while venturing out.