“I was made to walk non-stop for five days and served one dirty meal a day for nine days. I never thought I will come back home,” says Syed Mazhar, 25, showing the injuries on his leg.
Mazhar, from Bengaluru who is co-pilot with private airline Goma Express in Congo, was taken hostage by Rwandan rebels and freed from captivity on August 1.
There were celebrations in his house in Lalbagh main gate when he arrived there Thursday evening.
His mother Ishrath Unnissa welcomed with tears of joy. “I don’t have words to express my happiness as our son is finally back,” Ms Unnissa said.
“I had trust in God and I was sure that our son will be back,” said Syed Munnavar, Mazhar’s father, a wholesale rice merchant in Bengaluru.
“Flying had always been my passion, I discontinued my BE in computer science and obtained a commercial pilot’s licence in South Africa in December 2009. I started working as co-pilot with Goma Express in February 2020,” Mr Mazher told this newspaper.
“On July 24 ours was the second flight to take off from Congo. As we landed at Kitambe, all the passengers got down and the captain also disembarked from the aircraft. Soon I heard gunshots. I was in the cockpit. I realised that it was an exchange of fire between rebels and airport security. The rebels managed to overpower the security and entered the aircraft. I gave them whatever I had but they refused to let me go. They asked me to follow them,” Mr Mazhar said.
“They took me inside a forest. About 100 in number, some of them would carry me when I got tired. After five days, we reached a remote village. The villagers celebrated till morning after seeing a foreign hostage. I was confined to a room, where I prayed. I was promised by their chief, a polite man, that they would not harm me. They got in touch with the Congo government and placed their demands before them. After the demands were fulfilled, I was brought back in a UN helicopter on Sunday. I met the Governor and other senior officials of the Congo government and thanked them,” Mr Mazhar said.