E-Paper
‘Incident happened’: Arunachal Pradesh police on abduction of 5 men in region
The 5 young men from Tagin tribe, who used to work as porters for the Indian Army, had gone missing on Thursday reportedly from Sera-7 on the Indian side of the McMohan line bifurcating Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet Autonomous Region of China.
Arunachal Pradesh police on Monday confirmed that the alleged abduction of five men from the state by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last week did take place.
“I spoke to the family members of the 5 missing youths, but till date they have not lodged any formal complaint. In fact, the incident has happened. I can only tell you that much,” Taru Gussar, Superintendent of Police, Upper Subansiri district told HT.
The 5 young men from Tagin tribe, who used to work as porters for the Indian Army, had gone missing on Thursday reportedly from Sera-7 on the Indian side of the McMohan line bifurcating Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Two other men who were with the missing five reportedly managed to ‘escape’.
“According to a statement by relatives of the young men and the people accompanying them who have come back, they have not seen the abduction themselves. But they assume that these 5 young men have been abducted by the Chinese,” Gussar said.
“It is difficult to say whether the incident happened on the Indian side or the Chinese side. We are in constant touch with the Indian Army. They are doing their own investigation and the local police are also trying to gather whatever information possible,” he added.
On Monday, China’s state affiliated Global Times tweeted quoting Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian-“China has never recognized so called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’, which is China’s south Tibet region, and we have no details to release yet about questions on the Indian Army sending messages to PLA about five missing Indians in the region”.
The matter about the missing men came to light after a brother of one of the 5 men wrote about it on social media. Though the family members were yet to lodge complaints with the police, two politicians from the state Tapir Gao, BJP Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal East and Ninong Ering, Congress MLA from Pasighat tweeted about it.
A police team sent to the border on Saturday to verify the incident is yet to report on it. The Indian Army, who had engaged the youths as porters, is also yet to give any update.
On Sunday evening, Union sports minister and BJP MP from Arunchal West Kiren Rijiju tweeted that the Indian Army has sent a hotline message to PLA about the missing men, but was yet to get any response.
