Bhubaneswar: After being held hostage in civil war-torn Sudan, Adarsh Behera from Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district has been set free, BJP MP Bibhu Prasad Tarai said on Tuesday.
The Jagatsinghpur MP said that he had raised the issue in Lok Sabha and urged the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to intervene for the safe release of the abducted man.
36-year-old Adarsh is slated to depart from Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and arrive in Hyderabad. He is scheduled to leave Hyderabad and reach Biju Patnaik International Airport BPIA) in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
It may be noted that Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had sought urgent intervention from the MEA in November for Adarsh’s rescue. The Chief Minister had also asked senior officials to initiate all necessary steps to ensure his safe return.
Following this, the Director of Intelligence wrote to the MEA seeking prompt intervention, while the Resident Commissioner in New Delhi urged the ministry to remain in touch with the Indian Embassy in Sudan and closely monitor developments to facilitate Adarsha’s release.
Adarsh, who hails from Kotakana village under Tirtol police limits in Jagatsinghpur, had been working as a machine operator at a plastic factory in Sudan since 2022. In November, his family was informed that he had gone missing, raising concerns about his safety.
He was allegedly abducted at gunpoint by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group involved in Sudan’s ongoing civil war, from Al-Fashir, about 1,000 km from Sudan’s capital Khartoum.
