New DELHI, India, Dec. 20, Reuter: India has ordered its diplomatic missions in neighboring countries to try to trace a Soviet scientist who disappeared from a tour group in Delhi on Friday, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said on Sunday.
Security Forces were on full alert throughout India in the search for Babi Alexander, 25, a physicist, who went missing on a visit to the Karol Bagh Market area north of ‘the city center.
Police said Soviet officials had waited 18 hours before reporting Alexander’s disappearance and had not yet supplied a photograph ‘Of him. “Had it been reported in time, we could have done our best to locate the scientist,” a police spokesman said.
The police said they were checking hotels, hospitals and the international airport, and Indian missions had been told to check arrivals from Delhi.
India is Moscow’s closest friend in South Asia, under a bilateral agreement, any Soviet citizen refusing to return home is not automatically granted asylum, but has to be interrogated by a judge in the presence of Soviet officials.
‘Alexander arrived in India on December 3 with a party of 35 Soviet tourists; police said the others had returned home.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 25, 1987
