Braveheart Biju returns home

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A hero’s welcome awaited K.V. Biju as he returned to Palakkulam in Mooddady near Koiylandy on Sunday, following his daring escape from the clutches of suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorists who held him captive for 14 months in the Philippines.

Biju, wife Elena and their two children, Arjun (8) and Ajay (5), reached their home at around 2.45pm. The parents of Biju were too emotional as they hugged their son and his family. “I managed to escape due to the blessings of god the almighty,” Biju said.

He also thanked an ‘unknown’ Filipino who accompanied him to a safe zone and then disappeared, at the time of his escape. “I don’t know his name but I believe that he helped me by god’s grace,” Biju said.

Biju says he was abducted from his wife’s place in the Philippines for ransom, and for no other reason. He and wife had been to the Philippines on vacation from their workplace in Kuwait..

On his plans to return to Kuwait, Biju said he would take a decision later. “Let me relax for a few days as the ordeal was unbearable for me in the past 14 months,” he said.

Biju said that he was subjected to mental and physical torture by the men who allegedly had links with the Al-Qaeda as well. There were occasions, while in captivity, he witnessed exchange of fire between the Filipino military and the terrorists. “I have also seen the group beheading nine out of 14 Filipino navy officials captured by them,” he said.

Biju escaped from captivity in the wee hours of August 10. He said, the group used to threaten him that he would also be meeting the same fate of the Navy officers. He got the idea of escape due to the laxity of the vigil on the part of his captors after the beginning of the Ramzan period.

Biju, working as operations manager with Bronze Al Tawoos in Kuwait was kidnapped on June 22, last year, when he was visiting the native village of his wife, Elena. The two got married eight years ago.