Sister of former Navy officer held in Qatar renews release demand after firm CEO ‘freed’

Twitter user @DrMeetuBhargava, who identified herself to The Indian Express on Thursday as Commodore Tiwari’s sister, said the family had received “confirmed information” that Khamis Al Ajmi, a retired squadron leader of Royal Oman Air Force and CEO of the Doha firm, had been released.

The Indian Express was not able to independently confirm Al Ajmi’s arrest and release.

Bhargava declined to reveal who had given her the information of Al Khamis’s release but said the release had raised her hopes. She again appealed to the government to “expedite the release” of the Navy veterans without delay of “even a day or two”.

“When the CEO of the company has been released, all other officers of the company should be released,” Bhargava said.

All eight in custody were being allowed to communicate once a week with their families, Bhargava said. “They are all mentally fatigued and depressed, and if they are not released now, their mental and physical health will deteriorate badly,” she said.

The eight are being held by the State Security Bureau, the Qatari intelligence agency. Each is reportedly confined to a solitary cell. Efforts by India to have the men released have not succeeded yet — Bhargava said they are being held “illegally”.

“The Indian government should act immediately, swiftly and decisively if they really care about their defence personnel, as today is the 80th day of the illegal solitary confinement of our senior citizen Navy veterans in Doha. They are suffering from medical ailments due to their age,” she said.

The families have not been told about the charges against the men, all of whom were senior Indian Navy officers at the time of retirement. In a letter to the Indian Embassy in Doha, wife of one of the men wrote that her husband had been escorted to their home on October 5, but was not allowed to speak to her, and taken away again by the four escorts after he packed some belongings.

An MEA spokesman had earlier this month said that the government is making efforts to bring back the men. The Indian Express learnt that an Indian official travelled to Doha late last month. But efforts to secure the release of the men have not yielded a breakthrough.