Prayer rally held to appeal for Indian trader's release

COTABATO CITY, Philippines --- Representatives of different civil society organizations held a prayer rally here Tuesday where speakers took turns appealing for the release of kidnapped Indian trader Mike Khemani.

Khemani was snatched here by gunmen last week in a daring attack that left one of his bodyguards dead and another wounded.

A practicing lawyer here, Sam Fontanilla, past district governor of Rotary International District 3870, said the kidnappers must have assumed that Khemani, of pure Indian descent, owns the Sugni Superstore here.

The establishment has branches in Kidapawan City and in Kabacan, North Cotabato.

“He is just a managerial consultant of the establishment. He has health problems. We are appealing for his safe immediate release,” Fontanilla said.

Khemani is a Rotarian and an active supporter of the humanitarian projects here of the Free Masonry Fraternity, whose members include Filipino-Chinese merchants.

Among the participants to Tuesday’s prayer gathering at the Cotabato City plaza were dozens of workers from the Sugni Superstore.

Fontanilla said Khemani was a generous benefactor of various humanitarian projects in Moro communities in Central Mindanao.

Vice-Mayor Abdullah Andang, who spoke in the rally, called on Khemani’s abductors to “fear God” and set the businessman free.

Khemani was reportedly spirited by his captors to somewhere in a marshy area at the border of Cotabato City and Maguindanao province using a motorized water craft.

Senior Supt. Rolen Balquin, city police director, had said earlier they have received information from tipsters on the identities of the kidnappers, but declined to reveal names pending investigation.