Chennai: The father, brother and sister of Jesuit priest Alexis Prem Kumar, safely evacuated from Afghanistan where he was kidnapped by suspected Taliban members eight months ago, air-dashed to Delhi after the Prime Minister broke the good news to them on Sunday over the phone.

Feeling the huge relief after eight months of agony, Anthony Sami, a retired school teacher, his son John Joseph and daughter Elizabeth Rani went to Delhi to meet Prem Kumar, who had also reached Delhi from Afghanistan on Sunday.

“We do not have words to express our joy. We have been praying for the last eight months for his release. Our prayers have been answered,” John Joseph, younger brother of the priest, said when contacted by this newspaper. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to my father in the afternoon,” he revealed.

The government had arranged flight tickets for them to reach Delhi to meet Prem Kumar. No family members had spoken to Prem Kumar after the priest from Devakottai in SIvaganga district was kidnapped. He is the eldest son of Antony Sami and Mariathangam.

The aid worker was abducted from Herat in Afghanistan by unidentified gunmen on June 2 last year. At the time of his abduction, Prem Kumar was working as director with the Jesuit Refugee Service, an international NGO, and was engaged in the field of education in Afghanistan.

He had accompanied teachers on a visit to a JRS-supported school for returnee refugees in Sohadat village, 25-km from the city of Heart when he was kidnapped from the school.