Update at 7.00 pm
Two of the four Indians detained in the Libyan city of Sirte, an area under the control of the Islamic State, were freed on Friday evening. According to sources, two of those released are from Raichur in Karnataka and state capital Bengaluru. They have been identified as Laxmikanth and Vijayakumar
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said: “I am happy we have been able to secure the release of Lakshmikant and Vijay Kumar. Trying for other two.”
Three of those abducted are faculty members at the Sirte university and the fourth person works at a university branch in Jufra.
“They are back in the Sirte university,” official sources said.
The Andhra Pradesh government urged Swaraj to expedite steps for safe return of all four.
Vikas Swarup, external affairs ministry spokesperson, said earlier in the day that all four were returning to India through Tripoli when they were detained on Thursday at a checkpoint about 50km from Sirte, hometown of former Libyan strongmen Muammar Gaddafi. Later, they were taken to the Sirte city.
The incident came a year after 39 Indians were kidnapped from Iraqi city of Mosul. They still remain in the custody of their captors.
Most of Sirte fell to IS in May and the university is not functioning since February, raising doubts that the Indians continued staying there as they were were yet to get their salary dues. All of them had been in Libya for more than a year.
There are 2,000 Indians at present in conflict-hit Libya, who stayed back despite many advisories urging them to leave the country.
Since most of the Indian mission staff to Libya is now based out of Tunis, it is proving to be difficult task for officials to track the developments inside the trouble-torn country.
Last July, a group of 65 Indian nurses were trapped in fighting which engulfed parts of Libya.
Earlier Report
Bengaluru: Among the four Indians have been kidnapped by militants in Libya, two are from Karnataka and two are from Hyderabad, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesman, Vikas Swarup, said on Friday and added that the MEA is in regular touch with families of abducted Indians.
According to the sources, the kidnapped have been identified as Gopi Krishna from Srikakulam, Balram from KushaiGudda in Hyderbad, Vijaya Kumar and Laxmikanth from Karnataka.
Three are said to be teachers in University of Sirte and one works at the university. ISIS militants are suspected to be behind kidnapping of Indians.
Swarup said that the MEA through head of mission in Tripoli is trying to find more information about the kidnapped Indians.
Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj has met PM Narendra Modi and apprised him about the kidnapping of Indians in Libya.
The kidnapping comes even as the fate of 39 Indians kidnapped in June 2014 from Mosul in Iraq remains unknown. The 39 were kidnapped by the Islamic State militants. The government maintains the men, all labourers from mostly Punjab, are still alive.
The Indian government had last year issued an advisory asking its citizens to leave Libya.
