TURA: Armed men waylaid an engineer of a road construction firm working on the mega highway project connecting Tura with Shillong via Nongstoin on Tuesday.
Road construction engineer Waseem Ahmed was returning from the construction site at Rongap-Megaggre village border on a motorcycle at around 5-30 pm when the armed men took him away at gunpoint from near the Samanda-Jengjal by-pass.
The 25-year-old assistant engineer hailing from Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir was working for the Hyderabad construction company BSC-C&C JV which is executing the much awaited Shillong-Nongstoin-Williamnagar-Tura highway when the incident took place.
He was heading back to the camp site at Samanda when he was taken away.
The camp is protected round the clock by armed police personnel from the state police force and security cover is also given to the officials of the company during inspection of work sites at vulnerable areas.
Work of the 264.30 km highway project at an estimated cost of Rs. 1494 crore began in March, 2011 and most of the construction work has already been completed in the Garo Hills sector and only a portion remains on the Khasi Hills sector.
Militants and criminal gangs have in the past targeted the staff and officials of the company engaged in the construction work on the highway.
