Indian woman who was imprisoned in Afghan prison before Taliban capture

Since then, Bindu has been fighting a big struggle to bring her daughter and granddaughter back to India. But Bindu’s struggle has increased after the death of Bexen Vincent in a US airstrike fighting for Islamic State.

By the time Nimisha and Ummu were in prison in Afghanistan, Bindu was trying to get her daughter and granddaughter back to India by writing letters to the Ministry of External Affairs as well as elsewhere in the central government.

Bindu has twice knocked on the doors of the Kerala High Court with her plea.

Their demand has been that Nimisha should be punished according to Indian law for joining an organization like Islamic State and granddaughter Ummu should be allowed to live with them so that she can mix with the society.

His petition is pending in the High Court for August 24. But Bindu is now confused whether to continue the case or not.

Bindu told the PRESS24 NEWS that “I don’t want to pursue this. I want to first know where they are.” Bindu seemed very upset saying this.

Bindu spoke to PRESS24 NEWS in 2016 as well but now she seems more troubled than ever before.

Bindu had told that in the month of November 2015, Nimisha suddenly stopped calling him everyday to know about his well being.

Nimisha was studying in a dental college in Kasaragod where she was to become a dentist within a year. She was living in Kasaragod while her mother lived in Thiruvananthapuram.

Troubled by not getting the news of the daughter’s well being, Bindu came to know after many efforts that Nimisha has got married and has been missing since then.

On November 9, 2015, Nimisha’s stepfather filed a missing person report with the Kasaragod police. Acting swiftly, the police produced Nimisha in the Judicial Magistrate Court. Here he was released.

Bindu filed a hibis corpus petition in the Kerala High Court seeking the production of Nimisha, her husband Bexen and an inquiry into the conversion.

After this, on November 25, 2015, the High Court dismissed this petition and said that Nimisha is an adult and she had married of her own free will.

Bindu calmly accepted the daughter’s conversion and persuaded the daughter and son-in-law to live with her.

Bexen had left his Christianity and converted to Islam. After this Nimisha came several times to meet her mother.

In May 2016, Bexen told Bindu that he was going to Sri Lanka.

Bindu tried hard to postpone this journey as Nimisha was pregnant and she was in her seventh month.

Two days later, on 17 May 2016, Nimisha and Bexen left for Sri Lanka.

In July 2017, Bindu suffered the biggest setback of his life when he learned that his daughter and son-in-law were among 21 people who had fled from Kerala to Afghanistan to join the Islamic State.

Bindu still did not want to believe that her daughter, son-in-law had joined Islamic State. He had full faith in God about this.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) started working on the police registered cases of missing people who joined the terrorist organization in the year 2016.

Three years ago in November 2019, media reports surfaced that 10 women, including Nimisha, had surrendered to the government of Afghanistan.

This meant the beginning of a new struggle for Bindu. That too, when India brought Nasheedul Hamzafar, a person who joined IS, from Afghanistan. In such a situation, Bindu argues that why Nimisha cannot come.

In such a situation, he filed a hibis corpus petition but he was told that it was invalid because Nimisha was in jail.

“I got a message from a journalist that they are safe in jail,” says Bindu.

The High Court allowed him to withdraw this petition and file another Writ of Mandamus. Hearing on this petition is to be held on August 24.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have taken power in their hands by attacking Kabul. This had raised Bindu’s hopes a bit but then she had to be disappointed.

A female journalist told her that the men had been released from the jail but she did not know whether the women prisoners were released or not.

Bindu has not given up hope.

She says, “God is above all. God works only for the right thing, not politics, caste or religion. So I have to wait.”