West Asia kidnappings: There’s no end to wait for D’souzas, Sikhdars and Tikadars

KOLKATA: She cannot tweet her concern every now and then marking union minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj. No hash tag has been created for her yet. It has been two years, Namita Shikdar, a 40-year-old woman runs from pillar to post to get a word of information about her husband, Khokon Shikdar. Another woman of her age, Dipali Tikadar shares similar trauma.

Dipali’s husband Samar and Kakhan left Nadia in 2011 and started working as carpenters in Iraq. On June 16, 2014, both of them were abducted. In Kolkata, there is another family counting every second for an information about their daughter, Judith D’souza. The D’souzas of Kolkata and the Sikhdars and Tikadars of Nadia are bound together by a common string now. An unending hope of seeing their loved ones, return from the clutches of their abductors in West Asian nations.

Judith D’souza, an NGO official from Kolkata was kidnapped on Thursday in Afghanistan; while Khokhon and Samar, two migrant workers from Bengal were kidnapped way back in 2014 in Iraq. Wives of Samar and Kokhon still wait for a single word on their husbands.

Today they have completed two years waiting as on June 16, 2014; they got the first and final message from government: “Your husband has been abducted.” “The support we are getting from government is fantastic..,” said Jerome D’souza, elder brother of Judith.