By Our Reporter
Shillong: The four miscreants who tried to kidnap Sr Rose Kayathinkara, a Catholic nun of Medical Mission Sisters at Mendipathar, East Garo Hills on Sunday (May 27) remained untraced. Superintendent of Police, East Garo Hills, JFK Marak said that so far there has been no breakthrough.
Sr Rose, a long time social worker of Garo Hills, had come there in 1977 and introduced rubber plantation in the region. “People of Garo Hills call me ‘Rubber Rose,’ the nun said jokingly while speaking to this scribe on Tuesday evening.
70-year-old Sr Rose, who received the Pa Togan Sangma Award for Social Service on Meghalaya Day this year, said, “It was very shocking to have such bad experience after 35 years of service to the people Garo Hills. Above all, kidnapping a woman is very mean in a society where women are respected and honoured.”
Narrating the incident Sr Rose said, “The four men came with the excuse of discussing rubber. They spoke in Assamese but it is difficult for me to identify them. When they thought that Sr Cicily was me they pulled her and gagged her and then fired in the air twice. Later when they saw us running towards them to rescue Cicily they fled the scene,” a shaken Sr Rose said.
Sr Rose had formed the Mendipathar Multipurpose Co-operative Society in 1998 mainly to empower small and marginal farmers and provide them the marketing outlets so that they were not short-changed by middlemen.
It was not easy to contact this philanthropic nun as the mobile connection was poor and calls dropped repeatedly. There was no power on the evening that the kidnapping bid happened. And there was no power on Tuesday evening either. The convent was lit by solar lamps. Internet connectivity is erratic.
“It is sad that the district headquarter should be in such a pathetic situation. Only the towns are looked after and have all the facilities,” Sr Rose said urging the media to take up the issue of Garo Hills with greater empathy.
Meanwhile, condemnations of the kidnap bid have been pouring in from all quarters.
The Convenor, Conglomeration of NGOs & Church Leaders of Mendipather & Resubelpara Zone, Khanin Momin called it an act of cowardice.
Other religious organisations and the SDO Mendipathar too rushed to the sisters’ convent on hearing of the incident.