Indian student rescued from Chechnya, pleads innocence

Satyanarayan, son of a Cuttack-based school teacher Ladu Kishor Mishra, said he was even questioned by sleuths from the Intelligence Bureau immediately after his arrival here last evening regarding his 17-month tenure with Chechyan rebels as a captive.

"I had no time for fighting as I was only used as a cook and to do odd jobs like carrying their belongings from one place to another", a sick looking Mishra said.

Saying that life was horrible with the Islamic terrorists, he said he had been forced to change his name to Abdul Mallik and asked to read Koran with them every day.

Their day began at 0400 hours with Namaz and I had to perform the Islamic rituals though I am a Brahmin from Orissa. It was horrible torture, Mishra, known as Papu among close friends, said.

Mishra, who was studying medicine in Russia, said his blind faith in a friend had earned him the worst ever experience in life.

"When I was studying at Dagestan Government Medical Academy, I became friendly with a local student, Rashul, and one day went on a picnic with him to nearby Kizlar town," he said.

"Rashul took me to his brother’s house from where I was handed over to a local agent of a Chechnya-based terrorist group," Mishra claimed.

The R B Baraev terrorist group took me as hostage and demanded $50,000 from my parents and another $ two million from the Indian Embassy as ransom for my release, Mishra, who will celebrate his 25th birthday on June 24, said.

During his days of captivity, he was taken to various places, he said, adding the worst part of his ordeal was during the first eight months which he spent in Urus Martin where he was held prisoner in a dingy cell with very little food.

However, when Russia intensified attacks on Chechnya and more rebels were killed, they released Mishra from the cell and engaged him in cooking and other menial jobs, he said.

While moving with the Baraev group, Mishra sustained leg and back injuries when Russian forces bombarded their shelter, he said.

In Wasindoroi, the 25-member group led by one Ali, stayed for three weeks in January this year amidst intense cold and snowfall, he said, adding that from there they proceeded for Barandi, Sarat and Comsomalski on foot in the freezing minus 30 degree temperature.

When they neared village Rostanchu in Chechnya, the group came under heavy air attacks in which 15 of them were killed while the rest were gravely injured, he said.

But by then rebels had decided to surrender to the Russian forces, he said. During the intense interrogation he revealed the role of Rashul and they subsequently arrested him, Mishra added.

"When I was produced before journalists after my release, I came to know that I had been branded as a terrorist fighting along with the Chechnyans as I was well conversant in Russian and Chechnyan languages besides being familiar with the topography of the region."

After he was rescued by the Russian forces, he was kept in solitary confinement, he said adding "it was a journey from one jail to another."

Though he surrendered on March 14, he was handed over to Dagestan authority on March 30, this year for verification of the statement that he was studying in DGMA and other inputs he had provided to the Russian security.

From March 30 to May 15 he was in Makhichla and from there with an armed escort was shifted to Moscow from where he flew to India yesterday, Mishra said.

His cousin Subhanwis Rath said all the two years he was missing was a horrible period for the family. They did try to talk to his medical college authorities, but they misled them by saying that he was busy in study, Rath claimed.

Only after the PTI story carrying his name said on March 31 that he had been rescued by the Russian forces from the Chechnyan rebels that they came to know about him, Rath and Mishra’s elder brother Satyanarayan Shiba Sundar, said.

Quoting Itar-Tass news agency, a March 31 report said Mishra, who was released in Chechnya on March 24 when a rebel gang surrendered, was being grilled by the secret police on the suspicion of fighting on the side of the militants.

Mishra told reporters in Moscow that he was expelled from the medical academy for non-payment of fees and was deceived by his acquaintances, taken to Chechnya and held hostage by notorious field commander, Barayev. PTI