KATHMANDU, May 13: With the help of a saree, a five-and-a-half meter long dress worn by women in Nepal and India, a 48-year-old woman from Chitwan, who has been held hostage in Oman for about two months, has managed to escape from the third floor of a building  where she was kept hostage.

During her escape, her leg was broken and other body parts were also injured. She arrived in Oman in mid-February. She said that within a few days of her arrival in Oman, the agent took away her mobile phone along with the documents and locked her in a room. She mentioned that there were 11 Indians, five Nepalis and one Sri Lankan in that room. She was out of touch with her family for about two months.

The plan was for everyone to escape from the hostage room. However, that turned out to be impossible. Only five Nepalis managed to escape by tying three sarees worn by Indian women. The 48-year-old woman fell down after the saree got torn apart and the Indian and Sri Lankan women stayed in the same closed room due to fear.

"I couldn't move after I fell in an attempt to escape. Women from other countries did not escape because of the injuries I got when I fell," she said. A few minutes after reaching the Nepali embassy, the embassy took her to the hospital. “I stayed in a hospital in Oman for a month as I had injuries in other places along with a broken leg and a plaster cast.”

She said that after the Nepali Embassy coordinated with Maiti Nepal, she returned to her country on May 5. Maiti Nepal has arranged a ticket for her return flight.

“It felt like death staying in Oman's closed room. I had reached one floor down while climbing down with the help of the saree. But when the sari broke, I felt it was the last day of my life,” she expressed her harrowing tale.

Oman is not her first foreign job. Before that, she had stayed in Kuwait for a few years in around 2067 BS and again she worked in Saudi Arabia for about three years for foreign employment. Lately, the woman had to return from Kuwait within 3/4 months in April of last year. She said, "I went to Kuwait a year ago on the advice of an agent. But after reaching there I found out that I was banned from coming to Kuwait. I had to return from Kuwait within a few months. And I went to Oman, 11 months after returning from Kuwait. I was lucky to return back alive.”

The woman said that she was a patient of sugar and pressure and during her captivity she was fed food once a day that was stale. Although she has been to a few countries, she has been doing household work in all those countries. She had to go for foreign employment after the death of her husband while in Kuwait nine years ago.

 
• Oman
 
• woman
 
• hostage