MB Hair

Missing Tibet activist returns safe home in Mumbai

Phayul, Wednesday, September 19, 2007
By Phurbu Thinley

Dharamsala, September 19: Tibet activist
and National Coordinator of Friends of
Tibet (FOT), Mr CA Kallianpur has returned
safe home in Mumbai this morning after he
went missing for more than a week.

The 54-year old activist-cum-researcher
went missing from a train while traveling
from Mumbai to New Delhi on September
11. Until now, his disappearance has the
organization worried and officials equally
clueless.

Kallianpur’s mobile, which was traced to
Jaipur Circle in Rajasthan, was earlier
recovered from one Jeetendra, a young
boy in Kishenganj village, near Alwar in
Rajasthan. The handset was gifted by his
father Kailash Chand who happened to be
traveling on the same train on September
11. On questioning, Chand reportedly said
he found the phone lying under a seat in
the compartment in which he traveled
from 11:00 pm, September 11 and got
down at Mathura Junction at 7:00 am the
following day.

According to FOT General Secretary and
Tibetan activist Mr Tenzin Tsundue, Mr
Kallianpur was “drugged in Mathura lost
all his belongings and for many days was
dazed”.

Although Mr Kallianpur is now back home
safe, he is not well according to FOT’s
Anant Kumar Asthana.

“We are thankful to everyone for their
efforts and prayers for the safety of Mr
Kallianpur,” Tsundue said.

“Now we are on our way to Bombay
(Mumbai) to meet him” elated Tsundue
told Phayul when contacted by Phone.

The FOT group alleges that Mr Kallianpur’s
disappearance is the second time in weeks
that an activist has been the victim of
unknown assailants.

On Aug 24, Greenpeace and Friends of
Tibet campaigner V.J. Jose was drugged on
a train while returning from New Delhi to
Kerala. He was found unconscious at the
Jhansi railway station in Madhya Pradesh
and there were marks on his feet
indicating that he had been beaten
severely.

Kallianpur was traveling to New Delhi to
organize a conference on ‘India’s Foreign
Policy on China’ at the India International
Centre scheduled on Sep 13.

Kallianpur was traveling by the Paschim
Express (No. 2925) on a Tatkal ticket but
never reached the Gandhi Peace
Foundation New Delhi, where he was
supposed to reach by 11.30 a.m. on Sep 12.

FOT activists and his family earlier alleged
that railway police at Bandra in Mumbai
and New Delhi have refused to accept
missing person reports.