From Our Correspondent
TURA: A manager of a coal export company operating from Gasuapara in South Garo Hills near the international border with Bangladesh has been kidnapped by suspected GNLA militants who came disguised as labourers on Monday night.
Around six militants dressed as coal labourers halted a coal truck at around 8:30 pm seeking a free ride towards Mrong Enterprise export company at Gasuapara, close to the international border and approximately 45 kms from district headquarters, Baghmara.
Once inside the truck, the six men whipped out pistols and at gunpoint ordered the driver to proceed to Mrong Exterprise depot. As soon as they reached the company depot the armed men walked up to the manager’s cabin and forcibly took away Dipu Das.
He was last seen by the camp inmates being taken away at gunpoint into the surrounding forests that stretch for miles all along the border region of South Garo Hills. The coal export company, like many others that dot the Garo Hills side along the international border, ships several tons of coal from Garo Hills into Bangladesh in trucks every day.
“We have identified the group as that of GNLA area commander Pangkam who sent his cadres under one Odek to kidnap the coal company’s manager,” indicated district SP Davis Nestell R Marak.
The same group was involved in the killing of a trader, Satyender Prasad, in Chokpot village of the same district on Sunday morning. The militants killed Prasad in cold blood after he refused to accompany them to the forest during a kidnap attempt barely 100 meters from the Chokpot police station.
