Guwahati: Assam has witnessed steep rise in incidents of abduction for ransom with criminals capitalising on the troubled situation. It is happening despite a number of militant groups coming forward for dialogue with the government after signing ceasefire agreements.
According to official statistics, total 1422 persons were abducted in Assam till April this year while over 21,000 persons were abducted mostly for money during the last seven years.
There were 3812 incidents of abduction in the year 2012, 3785 in the year 2011, 3250 in the year 2010, 2719 in the year 2009, 2219 in the year 2008, 1893 in the year 2007 and 1818 in the year 2006.
In many of the cases breakaway factions of the militant groups in truce were involved while in some other cases organised gangs are involved. In some particular districts including Kokrajhar, Goalpara,Udalguri, Baksa, Chirang , rampant incidents of abductions have created a fear psychosis among the people.
The abductors usually target proprietors or senior executives of tea gardens, resourceful contractors, businessmen, PSU executives so that they could force out huge amount of money from the families.
Though police have succeeded in some cases to free victims from the clutches of abductors, in most of the cases the abductors free the captives after payment of ransom amount by kin of the victims.
