Kalpetta: The theft was daring and bit desperate. In landslide hit Wayanad, on the eve of Prime Minister's visit, a thief broke into a Navy man's house and stole valuables and medals. He didn't mind the thick security cover around the area.

Now the family has made a fervent appeal to the thief - we understand your needs, keep everything, but return the medals. The post has been widely shared on facebook.

The medals belong to K V Amal Jaan son of Muhammed Ashraf, a lieutenant in the Indian Navy. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy (NDA), Amal Jaan had won many awards during his academic days for best performance and later he joined the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala.

Humayoon Kabeer, the uncle of Amal Jaan posted the request on Facebook with a detailed description of the incident. It was on the eve of the Prime Minister’s visit to the landslide-hit Chooralmala village that the thief had broken into the house of Amal Jaan.

The incident took place when the family was away for three days. The family had returned only on the fourth day, last Saturday evening. Apart from the medals, the thief had stolen many valuables including three sovereigns of gold and a Rado watch worth around Rs 30000.

In the post, Humayoon Kabir said that the value of all other objects could be calculated, but the value of the medals and awards was beyond monetary calculations. ''We know that, if you took such a risk by breaking into our home at odd hours, that too when the region was under the thorough surveillance of secret service agencies, Special Forces and police due to the visit of the Prime Minister, you may have been in such a high need for money. But, you should realize that those medals are symbols of pride and priceless as they were earned after years of hard work,'' he said.

''You should know how much hardships a boy from such a remote village would have endured to clear the NDA examinations, excel in his duties and to bag medals and awards for serving the nation,'' the post read. The post concludes saying that the thief will not be able to sell them anywhere as nobody would buy them because it is an object of national honour of a brave son of the nation.

Talking to Onmanorama, Humayoon Kabeer said that he was so sad about the loss of the medals. ''I have posted the letter hoping that the thief may come across the post and may return the awards as there would be some elements of patriotism in him,'' he added.

Muhammed Ashraf, the father of Amal Jaan, an employee at Kannur University, said that his son was very sad when informed about the theft and loss of medals. ''He had won many gold medals during his study days at NDA and also during his stint at Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala. We can buy all the other things we had lost but not these medals,'' he said.