6 more Christian pilgrims from Kerala go missing in Israel

Another batch of six members of a 26-member Christian pilgrimage Team from Kerala went missing.

Kochi /Trivandrum:Days after a 48-year-old farmer who went to Israel on February 12 as part of a government sponsored delegation went missing, six pilgrims who went to Israel as part of a 26-member Christian pilgrimage team from Kerala have become untraceable .

Father George Joshua, a priest of the Malankara Catholic Church who led the trip, complained to the DGP regarding the incident and filed a complaint with the Israel Immigration Police and Israeli local police. Joshua also said that the six pilgrims absconded and did not even take their passports adding that he and the remaining 20 pilgrims returned to India on February 19.

Joshua along with the 26 pilgrims went to Israel on February 8 and also visited countries like Egypt and Jordan . The group arrived in Israel on February 11. Three people left the hotel on February 14 and another three on the morning of the following day. Official sources said that the missing pilgrims have been identified as identified as Shiney Raju, Raju Thomas, Mercy Baby, Annie Gomez Sebastian, Lucy Raju and Kamalam. A special team has been set up to investigate the case.

The farmer who went missing on Friday was identified as Biju Kurian, a native of Kannur. Meanwhile, the Minister for agriculture P Prasad said that the procedures had been started to cancel Kurian's visa. The minister also said that the farmer's family has not filed a complaint yet.

Kurain was one among the 27-member delegation of farmers and state Agriculture department officials who went to Israal on February 12. He went missing from the hotel they resided in Herzliya on Friday. Then The team registered a complaint with the police there and the police team started looking for him. Meanwhile, Kurian sent a voice note to his wife saying that he is safe and there is no need of of looking for him as he is not interested in returning to India. However, he did not elaborate as to why he does not want to return to India.

Kerala Agriculture Department accepted applications from farmers under 50 years of age with more than 10 years of farming experience and who have over one acre of agricultural land. From the applications, authorities selected 20 farmers for the visit Israel.

The officials were informed by one of his friends, Sujith, who was with him in the delegation. He said that Kurain had claimed that he would be paid Rs 15,000 a day if he worked as a labourer in Israel and it was more profitable than agricultural work. "A cleaning job in Israel earns Rs 15,000 a day. This amount is twice the amount get from farming," Kurain had told Sujith. Authorities say that after gathering all the clues, they found that Kurian had a specific plan before he started the journey.