Rescue Dawn

Father Tom Uzhunnalil went into darkness after the worst day in his life, but he always knew there was light at the end

- Jomy Thomas

His hands looked feeble, but I realised they were not when I held them. It must be the inner strength of a man who lived 556 days and nights in darkness, who prepared himself to die, who still believes everything that happens is God’s will.

Father Tom Uzhunnalil was working as a chaplain in the port city of Aden in Yemen, when he was abducted on March 4, 2016. It started as a normal day. He had his breakfast after the Mass, and was praying in a chapel at a care home when heard a commotion. He went outside and saw two dead people, and the gardener being shot. The shooter then turned to him. “I am an Indian,” said Father Tom. He does not have an explanation for why he said that. “They asked if I was Muslim. I said I was Christian.”

They put him on a chair. The gunmen who went inside came back with two nuns. They shot them on their heads. Two more nuns were brought outside. This time they did not kill them in front of him, but a few metres away. “Then they turned to me. They hadn’t tied my hands or feet. I thought they were going to shoot me as well.” One of them asked him to get up. Father Tom prayed for one last time before getting up.

He was not scared, but was numbed by what he saw. Those who were killed in front of him had been with him for many months. The gunmen killed 16 people that morning. They spared him. And put him in the trunk of a car.

There were three gunmen. “There might have been more,” he recalled. “They drove for a while. At one place, they handed me to another gang. They blindfolded me and let me sit in the back.”