His hands looked feeble, but I realised they were not when I held them. It must be the inner strength of a man who lived 556 days and nights in darkness, who prepared himself to die, who still believes everything that happens is God’s will.
Father Tom Uzhunnalil was working as a chaplain in the port city of Aden in Yemen, when he was abducted on March 4, 2016. It started as a normal day. He had his breakfast after the Mass, and was praying in a chapel at a care home when heard a commotion. He went outside and saw two dead people, and the gardener being shot. The shooter then turned to him. “I am an Indian,” said Father Tom. He does not have an explanation for why he said that. “They asked if I was Muslim. I said I was Christian.”
They put him on a chair. The gunmen who went inside came back with two nuns. They shot them on their heads. Two more nuns were brought outside. This time they did not kill them in front of him, but a few metres away. “Then they turned to me. They hadn’t tied my hands or feet. I thought they were going to shoot me as well.” One of them asked him to get up. Father Tom prayed for one last time before getting up.
He was not scared, but was numbed by what he saw. Those who were killed in front of him had been with him for many months. The gunmen killed 16 people that morning. They spared him. And put him in the trunk of a car.
There were three gunmen. “There might have been more,” he recalled. “They drove for a while. At one place, they handed me to another gang. They blindfolded me and let me sit in the back.”
Unwavering faith: Father Tom in Vatican.
The second gang took him to a house. One of them said to him in English, “Welcome! You are in safe hands.” Father Tom was relieved. “They fed me, and let me use the toilet. I don’t know how long I was there; maybe 12-13 days.” In those days, they interrogated him in detail. The first question was for phone numbers that he knew by heart. “I have a weak memory. The only number I knew was that of my mother. I cancelled that connection when she died,” he said.
From their second question, Father Tom figured out that what they wanted was money. They asked who were the important people who would try to get him released. Will the Pope intervene? Will the Abu Dhabi bishop intervene? “I worked under the Abu Dhabi bishop and went to Yemen with his consent. So I told them he would intervene,” he said.
In 18 months they shifted him four times. Two of them were inhabited places. He could hear music, vehicles and children talking. Though the rooms had windows he was asked not to look outside. He stayed at the second and third places for 3-4 months each—he did not count days, but realised it from the date shown in the videos they took in between. He stayed at the fourth place for almost a year.
The discipline of the ascetic life helped Father Tom get used to the tough life. In fact, it helped him to quickly get back to the normal life after his release on September 10 as well. And, for him, what happened is just an experience—he would not call it an ordeal, or even a test. There is not even a trace of spite when he talks about his abductors. “They never pointed a gun at me,” he said. In the videos they mostly acted, and the sound effects were fake, he said.
Every day in captivity was the same. “I would thank God when I wake up, and pray for the sisters and others who were killed. Then I would celebrate the Eucharist without bread and wine. I would pray for the dead, the living, friends, my abductor, everybody,” he said.
He was given a mattress to sleep. “At two places there were toilets attached to the room. They did not want me to see their faces, and used to blindfold me initially. I was allowed to remove it when I went to the toilet and lift it slightly while eating. They would ask me to look only at the food.” After a while, they stopped blindfolding him, but with a caveat. “I should cover my eyes with my palms if anybody was around. It became a habit,” he said. Father Tom didn’t know Arabic, and most of his captors didn’t know English. They communicated through gestures and monosyllables.
They fed him well—kuboos, biryani, rice, potato fries and boiled egg. “Some days they would give five eggs. I would eat two, and keep the rest for later.” But he was losing weight rapidly, and they were worried. “I told them it was because of diabetes” he said. “I had fever twice, and some gastric problems. One day they brought a doctor. My blood pressure had shot up, and the sugar levels were very high. They brought insulin shots for three days, and then 30 tablets. When they were done they brought 100 more, and another 100 after that.”
Papa is the representative of Christ. I kneeled down before him. He held me. Usually we kiss his hands, but this time he kissed mine | Abraham Kavalakkat
It was through food that one of them announced his friendship with Father Tom. “From their conversations I figured out that he was a senior person. He would bring me chocolates, apple, pomegranate and milk with bananas,” he said. Others would make fun of him for the show of affection. And, they kept reminding Father Tom that he was held hostage only for money, and would be released when they get it.
During Ramadan, they ensured that he got food three times a day. When they performed namaz, he also prayed. Prayers and sleep made most of the day. “You can’t pray for ever. I had studied at an industrial training institute. I would try to recollect those lessons. Draw electric circuits. Calculate in mind things like how much time a person who lives for 100 years has got, how many hours, minutes, seconds... like that,” he said. One of them said Father Tom would live for 85 years, without knowing what he was calculating in his mind.
When the abductors got tired of waiting, they took video footage and photographs to circulate. “They might have taken five videos. They would write what I should say on camera. I just mentioned the prime minister and Pope Francis. They told me about the message from my home requesting my release,” he said. One day, when they took the video, Father Tom saw the date on the camera display, and he realised why they gave him special food two days earlier. It was Christmas.
Initially they kept his hands and feet tied. They stopped that only after testing him. Two of them told him they would help him escape. He replied he would escape only through an official effort. Didn’t he expect to be saved? From day one he did.
Father Tom was a good-looking man. But the face in the video footages, and the one everyone saw when he got off a flight in Muscat was that of a harrowed man, unshaven for months. He saw his face after a long time at a hotel in the Omani capital. He could take a bath once in a while, and wash his clothes occasionally. They had given him soap and shampoo. The facial hair was a problem while eating. He would trim them with his teeth. His captors wanted him to look scruffy in the footage.
Father Tom went into darkness after the worst day in his life, seeing his companions being killed mercilessly. Did he have nightmares? Never. Not even once his faith wavered—“Not a hair of your head shall perish,” he repeated the verse from the holy book. In fact, he often dreamt about celebrating the Mass. “Another dream was eating chicken curry with all others at home,” he laughed.
He was told about his release on September 10. Early morning, they asked him to take a bath and get ready. They blindfolded him and took him to some other place, but returned to the old place after a few hours. At night, they again took him. After a few hours of journey, mostly through the desert, he was released to some people at around 3.30pm the next day. Again hours of journey, and the next day morning he was told they had entered Oman. He was taken to Muscat in a flight. He went to the hotel, washed and changed. Then back to the flight. He ate, and the doctor on the flight put him on a drip. “I slept well, and was in Rome when I woke up,” he said.
He met the Pope the next day. “Papa is the representative of Christ. I kneeled down before him. He held me. Usually we kiss his hands, but this time he kissed mine. I am not worthy of it. He said he prayed for me,” he said. He visited Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as well.
It had been 26 months since his last confession. In Rome, he confessed to Father Thomas Anchukandathil, who was the prior of the Salesian congregation in Bengaluru, and celebrated the Mass.
Will he go for another mission after regaining health? “If that is God’s will.” Did he forgive his abductors? “Christ taught us to love even enemies. I have been praying for them from day one.”
