SHIMLA, India, July 22 (AFP) - Distraught family members of one of three Indians being held hostage by militants in Iraq made a fervent appeal for help Thursday, as the Indian government began campaigning for their release.
"Ever since we have learnt about the incident the entire family has been in a state of shock. Please help us," said farmer Ram Dass, an uncle of Antaryami, one of the hostages who uses only one name.
Dass was speaking by phone from his native village in Una district, about 220 kilometres (136 miles) from Shimla, capital of the northern hill state of Himachal Pradesh.
"We learnt about the incident on Thursday afternoon on television," he said. "We haven't yet heard from the company that hired my nephew in November 2003," Dass said.
"He left home in November after completing his papers for heavy vehicle driving and called us only a couple of days ago," Dass added.
Indian Deputy Foreign Minister Edaepakath Ahmed has said India's embassy in Baghdad and ambassador in Kuwait are trying to contact the Kuwait-headquartered transport firm Universal Services.
Senior state police official Anupam Sharma confirmed that one of the hostages being shown in pictures splashed in Indian newspapers and on television "definitely" resembles Antaryami.
A group calling itself "Black Flags" said Wednesday in a video aired by Al-Arabiya news channel that it had taken a group of truck drivers captive in Iraq.
"We announce that we have taken two Kenyans, three Indians and one Egyptian captive," said one of the gunmen, who appeared on the video with a group of presumed hostages.
He said their company -- Universal Services -- should withdraw from Iraq and close its offices there, threatening to kill a hostage every 72 hours if it did not.
The other two Indians have been identified as Tilak Raj and Sukhdev Singh and apparently hail from northern Punjab state.
Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh went on air on Al-Jazeera and other Arab channels Thursday and made an appeal to the kidnappers to free the truckers.