Seven IL&FS Employees Taken Hostage In Ethiopia; Indian Government Urged Via Twitter To Intervene

India has approached Ethiopian authorities to investigate reports coming out of Twitter that seven Indian employees of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), are being kept as hostages by local staff over a dispute over unpaid salaries, reports Mint.

India is said to be discussing the matter ‘on priority’ with the Ethiopian government and IL&FS management, as per a Ministry of External Affairs official.

An IL&FS spokesperson has declined to make a public comment on the matter. One of the trapped employees, Neeraj Raghuvanshi, has been calling upon the Indian government to intervene through Twitter.

“Situations are beyond our control, please #help before mishappening,” Raghuvanshi tweeted, tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Raghuvanshi’s tweets revealed that the seven employees were being held across three different locations due to delay in payment of staff salaries and unpaid local government taxes.

Khurram Imam, another detained IL&FS employee, also took to Twitter to voice his distress over the availability of food, water and electricity to the hostages.

IL&FS is now under government control after the latter supplanted its Board of Directors through Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, procedures due to the inability of the company to repay its debt. The company is involved in infrastructure financing and development and has over the years completed many successful roads, townships and other projects in India and abroad.