Almost a month after Islamic State-affiliated militants attacked a convent in Yemen and abducted a catholic priest, there is rising fear that his life is in danger.
The Christian Post brought to light menacing online chatter about Isis' plans to crucify the priest, who hails from India, on Good Friday.
The reports on the macabre plan by the militants are vague, unsubstantiated and unverifiable but the Salesian order to which the priest belongs has said they have no clue about his whereabouts weeks after the abduction.
Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who hails from the southern Indian state of Kerala, was abducted on March 4 by the Isis-linked terrorists who attacked a convent and killed sixteen people.
Four nuns were killed in the attack on the a Missionaries of Charity-run retirement home in Aden, Yemen.
Posts on social media suggested the terrorists are torturing Tom and have plans to crucify him on Good Friday, a day when Christians the world over observe the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The threat of crucifixion has remained a rumour but a Facebook post by a South Africa-based Christian order called Franciscan Sisters of Siessen hinted at rising fears over the priest's safety.
"Was informed that the Salesian priest, Fr.Tom who was kidnapped by ISIS from the Missionaries of Charity Home in Yemen is being tortured and is going to be crucified on Good Friday. This calls for serious concerted prayers from all of us," the post read.
However, father Mathew Valarkot, a spokesman for the Salesian province in Bangalore, said the religious order has no information about Tom.
He said the order has not received any threat about execution, adding that no one has even claimed responsibility for the kidnap.
"These are all rumors," Mathew said, according to Christian Post.
"When no one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, how do we know other detail ... But even today we do not know who has taken him and what their motives are because no one has claimed responsibility," he said.
The abduction of Father Tom had sparked widespread condemnation including from the Vatican and the Yemeni President President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who said the attack was an act of terrorism.
Four gunmen had burst into the convent after securing access posing as relatives of one of the inmates and massacred everyone they could find inside.
