TURA/SHILLONG: A sericulture extension officer posted in North Garo Hills district was abducted on his way to Assam on Thursday afternoon.
The Resubelpara Sericulture Development Officer, Dilip Dutta Medhi, was travelling in a van from district headquarters Resubelpara towards Dudhnoi town in Goalpara district when armed men accosted his vehicle near Chotomatia village on the Assam side of the border at around 4 pm.
They forced the driver of the vehicle to enter a secluded jungle area from where they took away the official from inside the van.
Security forces have launched search operations in the area and strongly believe the involvement of the Rabha Vipers Army which is active in the area.
However, a senior official with the sericulture and weaving department posted in Shillong said that it was when the official was on his way to Guwahati to meet his family that the militants waylaid his vehicle near Chotomatia village.
According to the official, while the driver and the peon, who were accompanying the official were allowed to go, the militants took Medhi along with them. The Government vehicle in which he was travelling is still missing.
Subsequently an FIR was lodged by the frightened driver and peon with the nearby Mendipathar police station.
No one claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and an official source on Friday said that there was no demand note served to the kidnapped official, while adding that it is yet to be known whether any call was made by the militants to the family members.
The sericulture and weaving department has decided to send a team of officials to meet the family members in Guwahati on Saturday.
After the kidnapping incident, suspected UALA militants on Friday morning served demand note of over Rs 3 lakh to the office of Principal of Handloom Training Institute, Mendipathar. A case was also registered in this regard.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya Sericulture Technical Service Association (MSTA) expressed concern over the kidnapping of the officer.
In a statement issued here on Friday, the Association urged the concerned insurgent group to release him without any harm since he is the only bread earner in the family.”We would also like to convey our message to the family members not to be disheartened at this hour of crisis ,” MSTA said.
There has been a spate of kidnappings in the area over the past few years with little breakthrough for security forces. Many a time the victims are released after paying ransom to the kidnappers.
In June, this year, armed miscreants took away at gunpoint a railway project supervisor, J Narayan Rai (68) while working at a railway site between Tilapara and Bakenang village.
In February 2012 suspected Rabha militants abducted the Assistant General Manager (Inspections) of the State Bank of India V K Gupta while he was returning from Mendipather towards Dudhnoi late evening.
Five young men in two motorcycles stopped the official’s Tata Nano (AS-01 AU 5192) that was taking back the official after an audit inspection of Mendipather branch of SBI at around 7:40pm.
The men, who were armed with small hand guns, halted the vehicle at a place called Chotomia and pulled out Gupta and took him away.
In January 2012, a 78-year-old manager of a construction company was abducted at gunpoint by suspected militants from a railway project site at Mendipathar in East Garo Hills.
The victim Ganeshyam Das, manager of Rajpat MKJ Engineering, was taken away from Choto Miapara under Mendipathar police station when he was on a visit to the railway project site.
In August 2009, two Virgo cement officials were abducted from their plant headquarters in Damas before being released several days later at Rongjuli area of Goalpara district.