NEW DELHI, 9 August 2004 — Movie superstar Amitabh Bachchan is ready to appeal 100 times for the release of three Indians held hostage in Iraq. “If there is an official request, I am ready to do so, not just once but 100 times over,” he said yesterday in Bombay:
His remarks came in response to an interview published yesterday in the Outlook magazine in which the Iraqi tribal intermediary said the hostages could be released if Amitabh, lawmaker and ex-movie star Dharmendra and Asha Parekh went on television and appealed for their release.
“The demand that Amitabh or Asha Parekh make an appeal is one that is put forth by Sheikh Hisham Al-Dulaymi,” Rana Abu-Zaineh, spokeswoman for Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, said by telephone from Kuwait yesterday.
She said as the company could not help on this demand, it had to be tackled independently.
Saying he has no objection to playing this role, Amitabh said: “I am a citizen of this country and I am ready to do anything for it. However, there has been no official communication regarding this.”
Stressing on the need for an official request, he said: “I do not want to do anything that would jeopardize the release of the hostages. It is a political problem and lots of people are involved in seeking their release, including the Ministry of External Affairs. I am really a non-entity and hence I do not wish to jeopardize the whole process of getting them back home.
“Whatever, I have been hearing is only through the media. There has been no official request so far.”
“I do not think this whole thing looks very serious or authentic till I actually receive a statement from the government or the External Affairs Ministry,” Amitabh said.
On whether he was be ready to fly down to seek the hostages’ release, Amitabh replied: “Let there first be some kind of official request from the government.”
Families of the three waited anxiously yesterday as insurgents reportedly made new demands to release their seven hostages in a blow to hopes of a breakthrough in the three-week ordeal.
Minister of State for External Affairs Edappakath Ahamed said late Saturday that “all indications” pointed to an early release of the Indian truck drivers plus three Kenyans and an Egyptian who were kidnapped July 21.
But yesterday the drivers’ employer said they had learned of a fresh demand from the abductors. “Till yesterday we were very close” to securing the release, said Rana. “But late night there was a new demand. It is nothing related to our company,” she told the Indian news channel Aaj Tak, declining to elaborate.
“Nothing (is) sure till this minute; we are still discussing it,” she said, adding that the company was talking with Dulaymi.
However, a spokesman for Dulaymi in Baghdad denied having any knowledge about a new demand by the kidnappers.
Relatives of the drivers said they would remain cautious as a report last week by the Kenyan government of the hostages’ release had proved false. “This has dampened our hopes,” Ram Murthi, the father of hostage Antaryami, said of the new demand by the abductors.
“Until I hear my son’s voice telling me that he is free, I will not feel at ease,” he said by telephone from Dehlan village in the northern Indian mountain state of Himachal Pradesh.
Ram Dass, the hostage’s grand-uncle, said: “It’s been a long wait for us.”
“Earlier too there were hopes of this kind being offered but then it all collapsed,” Dass said.
“So until he comes back home, we are on tenterhooks. All three of our boys should come back. Then we will celebrate with all the villagers,” Dass said.
