KABUL: An Indian charity worker kidnapped from Kabul has been rescued, officials said Saturday, more than a month after she was taken at gunpoint in the latest abduction of foreigners in the war-torn country.
Judith D’Souza, a 40-year-old staff member of the Aga Khan Foundation, a prominent NGO that has long worked in Afghanistan, was abducted near her residence in the heart of Kabul on the night of June 9.
“I am happy to inform you that Judith D’Souza has been rescued,” India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter.
“D’Souza is with us — safe and in good spirits... I have spoken to Judith. She is reaching Delhi this evening.”
An Afghan security official told AFP that D’Souza was rescued in an operation in a district of Kabul on Friday and no ransom was paid.
He added that a criminal gang, and not militants, were behind the abduction, which had prompted desperate pleas from D’Souza’s family to Indian officials on social media.
“Judith has been rescued by the Government. Our family’s joy knows no bounds. Gratitude to (the Indian government),” Jerome D’Souza, a family member, said on Twitter on Saturday.
D’Souza’s abduction came after Katherine Jane Wilson, a well-known Australian NGO worker, was kidnapped on April 28 in the city of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan.
Kidnapped Indian charity worker rescued in Kabul
Kidnapped Indian charity worker rescued in Kabul
Trump ‘very disappointed’ with UK’s Starmer for blocking use of air bases, Telegraph says
- UK PM then said bases could be used in “defensive” operations
- Trump says it took “too long” for Starmer to change his mind
LONDON: Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not allowing the US to use the Diego Garcia air base to carry out strikes on Iran, the Daily Telegraph quoted the US president as saying in an interview.
Britain had reportedly initially denied the US permission to conduct air strikes from its bases, but on Sunday evening Starmer said he was accepting a request for their use in any “defensive” strikes the US wanted to make against Iranian targets.
In an interview published on Monday Trump told the British newspaper that it took “too long” for Starmer to change his mind.
“That’s probably never happened between our countries before,” he told the Telegraph, adding: “It sounds like he was worried about the legality.”
Trump said Starmer should have approved from the get-go the American use of Diego Garcia — a strategically important US-UK air base in the Indian Ocean — saying Iran was responsible for killing “a lot of people from your country.”
Britain was not involved in the joint US-Israel air strikes on Iran that killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
Since attacks on Iran started on Saturday, Iran has been targeting Gulf countries with missiles, and on Sunday an Iranian-made drone hit Britain’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus, causing limited damage and no casualties.
Trump said it was “useful” that the US would now be able to launch operations from Diego Garcia, as he also criticized a deal Starmer has made over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, where Diego Garcia is based.
