ISIS gave me food, didn`t harm me physically: Father Tom Uzhunnalil

Father Tom Uzhunnalil was recently rescued from captivity in Yemen.

New Delhi: Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who was recently rescued from captivity in Yemen, said on Thursday that his captors did not harm him physically.

Addressing the media after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, he said, "God has a mission for all of us and my mission has been to be present for the old and the dying."

"I have prayed for those who kept me (captive). They gave me food and didn't harm me physically. Initially, they asked who'll help me -government or Church? After that don't know what they did," Father Uzhunnalil said on demands made by his captors.

On his meeting with the Prime Minister, he said, "He (PM Modi) was happy that I am freed. He said 'take care of your health now'," ANI reported.

Father Uzhunnalil, a Vatican priest from Kerala who was freed from the clutches of the Islamic State terror group earlier this month, returned to India on Thursday morning.

He was abducted by terrorists in March last year when militants barged into a care home for the elderly set up by Mother Teresa`s Missionaries of Charity in Yemen`s Aden and shot dead many people, including four nuns of the charity organisation, among whom one was from India.

He was rescued from captivity from an undisclosed location in Yemen thanks to the intervention of the Sultanate of Oman that helped to find and rescue him.

On reaching Delhi, he paid gratitude to all those who made his freedom possible.

"I am very happy, thank Almighty for making this day possible. I am grateful to all those people who have worked in their own way (to secure my release)," the priest had told reporters at the Delhi airport, as per IANS.

He later met PM Modi. 

(With Agency inputs)