Teachers in ISIS captivity forced to give lessons

The two Telugu professors, who had been abducted by ISIS, are reportedly being forced to teach the fighters at Sirte province in Libya. While assistant professor Ch. Balram is teaching English, his colleague Gopi Krishna is teaching Computers. Information received by the Indian Embassy in Tripoli and the Sirte University, where the duo worked, states that ISIS is utilising the “services” of the professors to improve their language and computer skills.

Mr Balram’s wife Ch. Sridevi has been informed by the embassy officials about the matter. The two hostages — Mr Vijay Kumar and Mr Ramakrishna — who were released last August,had revealed that the ISIS fighters respected them “because they were teachers”.

“When I spoke to the Indian embassy officials and university authorities, they told me that my husband was being made to teach his captors. A member of Parliament, who helped me to get in touch with the External Affairs ministry, also told me the same,” Ms Sridevi told this newspaper.

“He used to teach English in the Sirte University. Gopi Krishna was teaching Computer Science.

Probably, the captors must be interested in these subjects,” she added.

Ms Sridevi believes that the ISIS has not released her husband yet because they want to utilise his expertise. “Otherwise, why do they want to keep him for these many months There is no other reason we know of,” she said.

According to reports, the ISIS militants have established a parallel government in Sirte and they are expanding to other areas. They are also using the skills of various people like nurses and teachers, who were taken hostages before Mr Balram.