By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 25 February 2017:
An Indian doctor rescued from the so-called Islamic State (IS) last week has claimed he saw fighters as young as ten operating within the terrorist organisation’s ranks.
Dr Kosanam Ramamurthy also spoke of female IS fighters in Sirte.
In a video interview in India Today, he said he was forced to operate on IS soldiers in the town. When the jihadists realised he was a doctor they thought they could put Ramamurthy to good use. When he resisted he was shot in the hand.
Ramamurthy said that whilst many suicide bombes were prepared to blow themselves up, some were forced to carry out the act.
“I never thought I would come out alive,” he added, describing his ordeal as traumatic.
Ramamurthy, from India’s Andhra Pradesh state, was abducted from Sirte’s Ibn Sina Hospital in September 2015 when IS was in control of the town. He was working at the hospital and taken along with an Indian bio-medical engineer, who was later released only days later.
It has not been revealed yet who rescued him, or when.
Following a tweet by the Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj that “We have rescued Dr. Ramamurthy Kosanam in Libya” (sic), the media in India has claimed that he was rescued by Indian security agencies, but without any explanation. The fact that his rescue apparently came two months after the liberation of Sirte has raised questions as to what exactly occurred.
