WWF volunteers freed

Abductors today morning released three volunteers of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) unharmed.

Abductors on Thursday morning released three volunteers of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) unharmed.

HT Image

The three -- Saiyad Naushad Jaman, Gautam Kishore Sharma and Pranjit Kumar Saikia – were released in a wooded area along the Indo-Bhutan border, the police said.

They had been abducted by suspected Bodo militants, along with three of their female colleagues while conducting a tiger and elephant census operation in Manas National park in western Assam on February 7.

The three women -- Torali Goswami, Pallabi Chakraborty and Shrabana Goswami -- were released within 48 hours. The police suspected that a splinter group of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, a rebel outfit, was involved in the kidnapping.