COLOMBO (AFP) - Relatives of Sri Lankan truck driver Dinesh Dharmendran Rajaratnam appealed to his captors in Iraq to free him, saying he had been forced to work there by his Kuwaiti employer.
The 36-year-old Sri Lankan, who was seized by the Islamic Army in Iraq on Thursday, had told his family three weeks ago that he was desperate to return home, a family member said.
"He wanted us to send a fax message to his employer saying that there was a very pressing need for him to return home immediately," his brother-in-law Pullaiya Suresh told AFP. "He was not paid the salary that was promised."
Rajaratnam, a father of three children aged 10, 12 and 14, had gone to Kuwait last year in the hope of earning enough to provide a better education for his children, Suresh said.
"We have not had any information from the authorities here, all we know is only through the international media. We want to go to the Kuwaiti embassy tomorrow to try and get more information," he said.
The family said they had paid 68,000 rupees (650 dollars) to secure the driver's job in Kuwait and his wife and three children would be destitute unless the militants freed him.
Sri Lanka has no diplomatic mission in Iraq and four months ago discouraged its nationals from going there in search of employment.
Sri Lanka's Muslim Media Forum and the Muslim Leagues Youth Foundation appealed to Rajaratnam's abductors to free him on humanitarian grounds.
"In this holy month of Ramadan, we appeal to his captors to release our fellow Sri Lankan brother on humanitarian grounds," said Muslim Media Forum chief N.M. Ameen.
Foreign ministry officials said they were working with the Sri Lankan mission in Lebanon to secure the release of the first Sri Lankan hostage in Iraq.
Al-Jazeera television said the Islamic Army in Iraq had abducted a driver from Sri Lanka and another from Bangladesh, who work for a Kuwaiti company.
Al-Jazeera quoted a statement from the group as saying "the two hostages were abducted before driving their trucks into a US base in Iraq".
A video with the name of the extremist group showed each of the presumed hostages separately and a number of identification documents, including a Kuwaiti driving license.
The Bangladesh government has appealed for the release of its hostage, identified as 42-year-old Abul Kashem, saying the Muslim-majority nation is not involved in the ongoing strife in Iraq.
The Islamic Army in Iraq kidnapped French journalists Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale and Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro newspaper south of Baghdad on August 20 along with their Syrian driver, Mohammed al-Jundi.
It also kidnapped and murdered an Italian journalist.
Extremist groups in Iraq have taken several truckers hostage in a bid to force their companies out of Iraq. In some cases, ransoms have been paid to secure the release of hostages.
10/31/2004 - 06:50 GMT - AFP