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2 ONGC employees abducted by ULFA-I rescued in Nagaland; search on for 3rd
Efforts were underway to rescue the third employee abducted from a rig site at a tea estate in Assam’s Sivasagar district on Wednesday.
Security forces rescued two of the three state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) employees from banned United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I)’s captivity near the India-Myanmar border in Nagaland’s Mon district on Saturday, Assam police chief Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said. Efforts were underway to rescue the third employee abducted from a rig site at a tea estate in Assam’s Sivasagar district on Wednesday, he added.
“So far security forces have been able to rescue two of the total three victims from near the India-Myanmar border in Mon district, Nagaland. The rescued two are Alakesh Saikia and Mohini Mohan Gogoi. Efforts are going on to rescue the third victim,” Mahanta tweeted.
Mahanta thanked the army’s 57 Mountain Division and the Nagaland police for their help and coordination in the rescue operation.
“Without your kind cooperation and timely intervention of security forces on our input and continuous coordination, the rescue operation would not have been possible.”
Further details about the two and whether there was an exchange of fire during the rescue were immediately unavailable.
Ritul Saikia, the third abducted employee, and Gogoi worked as junior engineer assistants at the ONGC site while Alakesh Saikia as a junior technician. All three belong to Assam.
Police said five armed persons abducted the three at gunpoint in an ONGC ambulance, which was later recovered close to the Assam-Nagaland border, around 11 km away.
On Friday, the Assam police confirmed that ULFA-I was behind the abductions, and the outfit’s self-styled Major Ganesh Lahon carried them out along with four others. The police have arrested 14 persons on suspicion of their involvement in the abductions.
In December, ULFA-I abducted two employees of a private company from a drilling location in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh. Both of them were released earlier this month after over 100 days in captivity.
