Barely three months ago, when Mumbai-born Naeem Sarang Mohammed announced that he had decided to take up a job at a security training camp in western Afghanistan, his extended family of engineers was more than a little nervous.

But Naeem, 39, who had worked in Kabul for four years, tried to allay their apprehensions saying things could go wrong anywhere.

Today, 10 days after he was abducted in Herat province and with little information about his whereabouts, the family which lives in Kurla is crestfallen. His wife, Rafat, 30, has slipped into depression.

Rafat met The Indian Express on Thursday in her first interaction with the media since the April 21 kidnapping of her husband. She broke down when asked about her husband, became hysterical and was carried inside by her relatives.

“She is depressed. She has not come out of her room since she heard the news. We have not allowed even our closest relatives to meet her because she breaks down even at the mention of Naeem’s name,” said her father, Munir Ahmed Nasib.

Naeem was a logistics officer in charge of purchases at EOD Technology, a US firm which provides security for the training camp in Herat. He was abducted along with a Nepalese who worked in the catering department when they were travelling by road with their Afghan driver to a district that borders Iran. The identity of his captors is not known yet.

A day after the kidnapping, the Ministry of External Affairs said that Afghan authorities were investigating the case and New Delhi was closely following developments. But little has been said in public since. The Nasib family, where most men are mechanical or electrical engineers and have their own workshop in Ghatkopar, said, “Every time the phone rings, the entire family becomes tense.”

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