JAIPUR: Prakash Chandra Joshi, a 61-year-old Jaipur resident and General Manager at a cement factory in Mali, West Africa, was kidnapped on July 1 by armed assailants along with three other Indian nationals.
Joshi had joined the Diamond Cement Factory in Mali just weeks earlier, on June 5. The incident is suspected to be linked to Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), an Al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group that claimed responsibility for multiple attacks across Mali on the same day.
Joshi’s wife, Suman, spoke to the media and recounted the last conversation she had with her husband.
“He had joined the factory as General Manager on June 5. I last spoke to him on June 30. He told us he wasn’t feeling well. We asked him to resign and return home,” she said.
After June 30, Joshi's phone became unreachable.
“We initially thought it might be a network or electricity issue – which is common in African countries. But on July 2, our daughter received a call from the company’s HR informing us that he had been kidnapped. We were shocked. How could we have imagined something like this?” Suman added.
According to the family, Joshi had gone to the factory for his assignments on the morning of July 1 when the attack occurred.
“Hundreds of armed men stormed the factory, opened fire, and set parts of it on fire. In the chaos, they abducted three people. They left in the car provided to Papa by the company,” said a family member.
The family believes the attackers may have mistaken Joshi for the factory owner due to his senior position and vehicle.
More than 12 days have passed since the kidnapping, and the family remains anxious and uncertain about his safety.
“We are trying everything we can – reaching out to the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy. While the embassy is responding to our emails, we haven’t been able to establish contact with the Ministry directly,” they said.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs confirmed the incident, stating that the Indians working at the cement factory were “forcibly taken away” by a group of “armed attackers.” However, there has been no official statement yet from the Malian government.
The kidnapping coincided with a series of terror attacks across Mali, for which the Al-Qaeda-linked JNIM claimed responsibility. This has led to strong suspicion of the group’s involvement in Joshi’s abduction as well.
Meanwhile, Mali’s military has claimed that the terror attack was repelled, and over 80 militants were killed in retaliatory action. Despite these developments, the whereabouts of Joshi and the other abducted Indian workers remain unknown.
