OUR BUREAU
DIGBOI/DEMOW: Suspected ULFA militants kidnapped three employees of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) on Wednesday from a rig at Lakwa inside Lakuwa Tea Estate under Simalguri Police Station in Sivasagar district.
The development came close on the heels of the release of two employees of Quippo Oil and Gas Infrastructure Limited by the outfit in the first week of April.
Confirming the development ONGC spokesperson Jamil Passa said that the abducted employees include junior engineers Ritul Saikia and Mohini Mohan Gogoi, and junior technician Alakesh Saikia, all working in the production department of the Corporation.
According to Passa, the three staff members were taken away in an ambulance of the corporation which was later found abandoned near the thick Nimonagarh vegetation belt, close to the Assam-Nagaland border.
"We were reported about the incident around 5.30 am," said Amitava Sinha, the Superintendent of Police, Sivasagar, adding "Around five armed miscreants were suspected to be behind the abduction."
It is suspected that the militants might use the route of Mon district in Nagaland to take the abductees to Myanmar, a preferred hideout for militant organizations operating along the Assam-Arunachal-Nagaland borders.
Security agencies have been immediately alerted and deployed in the region and nearby Nagaland areas for immediate and desirable outputs to this effect. Massive search operations are underway, added Sinha.
No outfit has formally claimed responsibility for the abduction till the time of filing of this report.
"The abduction bears the trademark of the ULFA, which is the only militant group active in the area," said the Superintendent of Police.