3 Indians missing after travelling to Iran, embassy ‘strongly takes up matter' with Tehran
Embassy officials are also keeping the families informed of the efforts being undertaken to trace the missing citizens. This is the second case of Indians going missing in Iran following their arrival in the West Asian nation in the last year.
'Family members of 3 Indian citizens have informed the Embassy of India that their relatives are missing after having travelled to Iran. The embassy has strongly taken up this matter with the Iranian authorities, and requested that the missing Indians should be urgently traced and their safety should be ensured,' the Embassy of India said in a statement posted on X.
New Delhi: Three Indian citizens have gone missing after travelling to Iran, the Embassy of India in Tehran confirmed Wednesday. The matter has been taken up with the Iranian authorities.
Earlier in January, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed that three businesspersons from India who had arrived in Iran last December, had gone missing there. At the time, India had raised the issue with both the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs and the embassy of Iran in New Delhi.
With regards to the current case, an individual in the embassy who was familiar with the matter told ThePrint that it is 'currently being followed up by the relevant authorities'.
'What is surprising is why the Indian embassy in Tehran has chosen to publicise this issue through the media,' this individual said.
The details of the three citizens have not been made public yet, and the MEA has yet to comment on the issue. However, according to an NDTV report, the three Indians are all from the state of Punjab.
The report adds that three Indians arrived in Iran on 1 May, and have since been allegedly kidnapped and held for ransom. The three were said to have travelled to Iran, with the end destination being Australia, via the Dubai-Iran route.
Family members have informed NDTV that they have since received calls for ransom from the alleged kidnappers. The family reportedly received calls till 11 May, following which there have been none. An agent reportedly involved in sending the three Indians to Iran has since been absconding. ThePrint has yet to independently verify these claims.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: Iran's Araghchi present, Jaishankar says attack by Pakistan will be 'met with very firm response'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
30 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Shashi Tharoor disappointed over Colombia's stand on Operation Sindoor, says, 'here to dispel misunderstanding'
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has expressed disappointment over Colombia's recent statement on the Indian military strikes under Operation Sindoor. The Indian airstrikes targeted known terrorist camps, but Colombia's government later extended condolences for the loss of lives in Pakistan. Speaking to reporters in Bogotá, Tharoor said, 'We are here looking for understanding... We have the impression that perhaps the situation was not fully understood when that one statement was made.' 'Understanding is extremely important for us,' he continued. 'We are a country which has really been a force for constructive progress in the world.' Tharoor underlined that India's response was a matter of self-defence and not aggression. 'We certainly hope that other governments will tell those who give safe haven and protection to terrorists to stop doing so. That would be very helpful indeed, as well in the Security Council or outside it,' he added. During his address, Tharoor urged Colombia to reconsider how it views the conflict. 'We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them,' he said. 'There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence.' He emphasised the purpose of the visit was to clear up any confusion. 'If there is any misunderstanding here on this core, we are here to dispel any such misunderstanding,' Tharoor said. 'We're very happy to talk to Colombia in some detail about the circumstances.' Tharoor also pointed out that India has evidence linking the Pahalgam attack to Pakistan-based terror groups. 'We have, as I said, very concrete proof. In fact, when this terrorist attack occurred, it was immediately claimed by an organisation called The Resistance Front, which is a unit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba base in Muridke, Pakistan,' the Thiruvananthapuram MP said. Drawing a comparison between the two countries, he concluded, 'Just as Colombia has endured many terror attacks, so have we in India. We have endured a very large number of attacks for almost four decades.' The Indian delegation is expected to meet Colombian officials to discuss the issue further and present its side of the story. Tharoor is currently in Bogotá as part of an Indian foreign outreach delegation following Operation Sindoor, launched in response to a deadly terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people.
Economic Times
31 minutes ago
- Economic Times
'This kind of outrage could not go unpunished', Shashi Tharoor emphasises on 'new normal' in Colombia
ANI Shashi Tharoor emphasises on 'new normal' in Colombia Reiterating India's firm stance against terrorism, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday (local time) said that the country decided that the Pahalgam terror attack could not go unpunished and launched strikes against terrorist infrastructure under Operation Sindoor. Addressing the media at Bogota, Tharoor said, "India suffered a grievous terrorist attack on the 22nd of April... When this happened, of course, the world rose up to condemn the terrorist attack, but that was as far as it went. There was no action taken, not even by the country where these people had emerged from, Pakistan. Nobody was arrested, and there was no attempt at any prosecution. India decided that this kind of outrage could not go unpunished. On May 7, India chose to strike against known terror bases and launch pads."Tharoor also showed the picture of PakistArmy officials attending the funerals of terrorists after India's strike on their terror bases. Tharoor said Pakistan provides terrorists a safe haven to continue their training."There (in Pakistan) was a well-publicised funeral of one of the terrorists on the sanctions list. That funeral was attended by uniformed senior military and police personnel from Pakistan. That is the extent of complicity that we are seeing between the terrorists who perpetrate crimes of this nature and those who finance, guide, train, arm, and equip them and do provide them safe haven to continue their training and their other awful deeds," he said. Tharoor expressed disappointment with the Colombian government for expressing condolences over the loss of lives in Pakistan, rather than sympathising with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack. "We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism," he Congress MP, who is leading a multiparty delegation to Colombia, stated that India is only exercising our right of self-defence. "We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence, and if there is any misunderstanding here on this core, we are here to dispel any such misunderstanding. We're very happy to talk to Colombia about the circumstances in detail. We have, as I said, very concrete proof. In fact, when this terrorist attack occurred, it was immediately claimed by an organisation called The Resistance Front, which is a unit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba base in Muridke, Pakistan," Tharoor said. Shashi Tharoor-led delegation includes Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayagi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), former Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora.
New Indian Express
42 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Three foreigners held for obtaining Indian passport using fake documents in Chennai
CHENNAI: Three foreign nationals were arrested in Chennai for allegedly obtaining Indian passports using fake documents. The three — Mohammed Kasim Pathan (41) of Bangladesh, Sangupillai Sarojini Devi (58) of Sri Lanka, and Dhanraj Pokhriyal (40) of Nepal— were arrested by the Central Crime Branch based on a complaint from the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer at Chennai International Airport on Tuesday. The police said four Indian nationals - Bina Das (54) of Odisha, Ramamurthy (44) of Nagapattinam, Chennamma (45) of Andhra Pradesh, and Barkathullah (59) Sivaganga - were also detained for aiding the trio. A probe is on to trace the travel agents involved in the case. According to police, investigations revealed that the four foreign nationals concealed their true identities, used forged Indian documents such as Aadhaar, voter ID, and PAN cards to secure Indian passports in order to be able to travel abroad. They were remanded in judicial custody on Thursday.
