Indian doctor, Ramana Murthy Kosanam, who was released after 17 months in ISIS captivity has recounted his traumatic experience while he was imprisoned at their camp in Libya.

He said, “ISIS people forced us to watch videos of what they did to Iraq, Syria, Nigeria and other places. It was bit difficult to watch them.”

He said, “These ISIS people are well-educated youngsters and they do know about India and its development and how it has developed in education, economy and everything else. They are interested in India. But, I did understand that they wanted to spread the ideology of their nation to other parts of the world, including India.”

In his statement, he said, “In a camp in the city they requested me to come and work in there hospitals. But since I was 61 then I had back pain and right leg nerve pain. I told them I am medically trained, not surgically trained. So they pulled me out of the Mahakama jail and put in another. I saw all kinds of attacks there.”

“The working members of the organisations are mostly youngsters, I saw suicide bombers as young as 10 year old. there were members beyond the age of 65 too.”

“I am so thankful to our PM and his team and other officials from the Indian embassy. I’ll never forget this all my life. They helped me to come to the embassy. These people worked so hard to pull me out from there.”

Dr Kosanam, hails from Eluru in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, had been working in Libya for the last 15 years. His wife Bhavani Annapoorna lives with their two children in Dondapadu village on the outskirts of Eluru.

By Premji