According to US-based International Christian Concern (ICC), another Indian Christian has been abducted on a street in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The captive is Samkutty (Sam) Varghese, an Indian national who had travelled to Saudi Arabia on 26th January this year.

A spokesperson for ICC said: "He was staying in Riyadh until his abduction off the streets by the Muttawa (Saudi religious police). It is being reported to us that the Muttawa approached Sam as he was waiting for friends near the city centre of Riyadh on the evening of March 9th at approximately 7:00 pm. Mr. Varghese was awaiting a visa extension from the Saudi government.

"The Muttawa asked Varghese for his passport. However, he was only able to give them a copy because the Saudi government had taken his passport since he was requesting a visa extension. They then asked him what was in his bag. In his bag, he had one Bible in the Hindi language. The Muttawa then took Mr. Varghese away and there has been no communication from him since."

No one has been able to contact Samkutty Varghese. His friends went to the local police but they have not been given any information. Mr. Varghese’s wife and children in India are waiting for word on his whereabouts.

"This is just the latest outrageous example of Saudi Arabia’s complete disregard of human rights and their zero-tolerance policy towards people of other religions at home, while they spend billions of dollars every year building mosques and promoting Islam around the Western world," said the ICC spokesperson. "The Saudi’s have made a lot of noise recently about their efforts to clean up the religious radicals and the Muttawa but it seems that it is business as usual."