A special prayer service has been held in India to mark the anniversary of the kidnap of a priest from the country.
The service in Ernakulam Town Hall in the stafe of Kerala comes a year after Fr Tom Uzhunnalil was abducted by Islamic State militants in Yemen.
Fr Tom was kidnapped when gunmen destroyed a care home he was serving at run by nuns in the capital Aden.
Four nuns and 12 others were murdered in the attack.
The Indian priest later emerged in a video on Boxing Day last year, begging for his life. The video confirmed he was alive but he appeared in poor health.
In the video, where he seemed to read from a script, he claimed authorities would've made greater efforts to release him if he was a European rather than Indian priest.
The Salesians of Bangalore, a Catholic order in India, said in a statement via news agency ANS: "We are deeply distressed by the delay in assuring his release."
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Article by Aaron James
Tola Mbakwe is a multimedia journalist for Premier.
