Muscat: Abducted Indian worker Mohammad Hanifa was rescued in the early hours of Monday by the Royal Oman Police from Sohar, according to his relatives in India.
“We got a call at 4am this morning from Hanifa that he was rescued by the Royal Oman Police,” his brother, Mohammad Abbas, told Gulf News from his hometown of Palakkad, in India’s southern state of Kerala.
“We are all relieved and very happy,” he said, adding that the kidnapped catering company worker’s mother had gone on a pilgrimage in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu after hearing about the kidnapping.
Hanifa had married only six months ago and his wife is in India. “Yes, his wife is very happy that he has been rescued from his kidnappers,” he added.
The Royal Oman Police spokesman confirmed the news that the kidnapped Indian was rescued but said details of the operations would be revealed later in the day.
Yousuf Salim, a Sohar-based Indian social worker, confirmed to Gulf News that police had rescued Hanifa and he was sent to Sohar Hospital for a routine medical check-up.
Abbas said that according to information they got from Hanifa, the Sohar police had captured four of the six kidnappers while two managed to escape during the rescue operation carried out by the special teams formed by the ROP’s Northern Batinah Command.
He also said that the PRs50,000 (Dh1,736) deposited in an account with a bank in Pakistan was not withdrawn. “We are trying to see if we can now freeze that amount and recall it,” he said. The family had deposited the ransom amount through money transfer from an exchange house in Saudi Arabia where Hanifa’s brother is employed.
The kidnappers had raised the ransom amount to 500,000 Pakistani rupees even after Hanifa’s brother paid the initial demand of 50,000.
The 28-year-old delivery person with a catering company in Sohar Industrial Estate went missing three days ago and, according to reports in Malayalam language newspapers in India, the family received ransom calls through a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone. Hanifa was reportedly kidnapped at the end of the day’s work when he carried home the day’s collection.
The family had initially filed a complaint with the local police in Palakkad but with ransom calls increasing and their newly married brother being tortured, the family then approached ROP through Hanifa’s sponsor in Sohar.
The family alleged that Hanifa was tortured and beaten by his captors.
