ASIA/AFGHANISTAN - JRS: optimistic about release of Jesuit priest taken hostage in June

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Kabul (Agenzia Fides) – “Moderate optimism” has been voiced by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) regarding the wellbeing and release of Fr. Alexis Prem Kumar, 47 year old Jesuit kidnapped in the area of Herat last June (see Fides 03/06/2014). Today indian foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, announced that Fr. Kumar is alive and “efforts are being made for his release”. James Stapleton, JRS, international communications director, confirming the news that Kumar “is alive and well”, told Fides of his “moderate optimism”: “There is real hope for his immediate release”.
Stapleton recalls that in these three months the work of the authorities has continued, and so has the service of JRS volunteers although in an atmosphere of greater tension: “In Herat the service continued with JRS staff in Afghanistan. Activities stopped only for a few days following the abduction and resumed soon afterwards. We keep good relations with the local people and, most important, we keep our promise to take charge of schooling for the children there, children of families who fled Afghanistan and have now returned. This is our mission. Our safety depends precisely on our relations with the local people”.
JRS has three projects in Afghanistan: at Herat, Kabul and Bamiyan, where they assist a total of about 6,000 Afghans, regardless of ethnic origin or religious beliefs, repatriated after lengthy periods in other countries. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 9/9/2014


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