An unidentified militia group in strife-torn Libya abducted an IT engineer from Koorachundu in the district, according to information received here.
Regi Joseph (43) was reportedly abducted by suspected anti-government militia group on March 31 from his workplace at Souk al Jumaa near the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Three other people, reportedly Libyan nationals, were also abducted.
Regi was working as an infrastructure engineer in Al Diwan Company, implementing a key project of the Civilian Registration Authority (CRA) tasked to create a national citizen database. Rebel forces had tried to hack into the servers of CRA a month ago.
“Regi has been missing since March 31. When contacted, company authorities said he and three others were abducted by an extremist rebel group,” the engineer’s brother Jojo Joseph said, adding that the firm told them to keep the information confidential and that it would secure his release.
“On Sunday the company authorities said the rebels were questioning him. We have not been able to confirm if he is safe,” Jojo said.
Regi had been staying in the Libyan capital along with wife Shinuja, a nurse in the Tripoli-based TMC Hospital for the last two years. They have three daughters
“Regi had messaged his wife on March 31 saying that he would be late from work. That was the last contact he had made,” Jojo said.
Family sources said Regi was handling the CRA project for creating a database to establish the nationality and citizenship of Libyans.
“Extremists had hacked into the servers of the national database on March 12 and a team headed by Regi had secure the servers back. We don’t know if the abduction has anything to do with the attempts to take control over the citizen database,” Jojo added.
Regi’s father Pulluvelil Joseph said his daughter-in-law had sought the Indian Embassy’s help to secure his release.
M K Raghavan, MP, said he had taken up the matter with chief minister Oommen Chandy and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.
Incidentally, a Malayali nurse in Libya, Sunu Sathyan and her infant son Pranav were killed on March 25 when a shell hit their residence. Their bodies were yet to be brought home.
Regi was reportedly abducted even as efforts were on to secure the release of Salesian priest Fr Tom Uzhunnalil from a terror group in Yemen. Fr Uzhunnalil was abducted last month.