Bengal CM may sound out Rajnath on Nadia carpenters abducted by ISIS

Namita Shikdar and Dipali Tikadar went to Banerjee’s house at Kalighat on Monday morning. After hearing of their plight, Banerjee immediately directed the concerned officials to look into the matter.

It is learnt that the state government will take up the matter with the Home Ministry.

Shikdar later said that both her husband Khokan and Tikadar’s husband Samar went to Iraq in January 2011. Samar had once returned in August 2013 for a few days. But her husband never got leave to visit his home even for a day since 2011.

“On June 15, 2014, I spoke to my husband for the last time over phone. He told me that he was kidnapped by ISIS activists along with Samar and 40 others from Punjab. The people from Punjab and two of them from West Bengal used to work there for the same company,” Shikdar said, adding that Samar spoke to his wife over phone for the last time on June 14, 2014. “Since then both of their mobile phones always remain in switched off mode,” she said.

“I have a 17-year-old daughter, a 7-year-old son and aged mother-in-law to look after. My husband was the only bread earner of the family. Local people and relatives had been helping me for the past one and half year. I don’t know what to do next. Dipali’s condition is similar to mine,” Shikdar said.

Shikdar is a resident of Tehatta and Tikadar resides at Mahakhala village near Chapra, both in Nadia district. 

The women from Nadia had also contacted Lakkhi Singh, a resident of Punjab, whose brother was also suspected to have been kidnapped by ISIS activists in Iraq. Singh’s brother is one of the 40 people from Punjab who are missing since June 2014.

Both the women ran from pillar to post to bring their husbands back. They wrote to the Home Ministry and other central government agencies. They even went to the BJP’s state headquarters and sought help in this regard. “They too assured help. But nothing came of it,” Shikdar said.

Finally they went to a senior official of the district, who had helped set up this meeting with the chief minister.