TURA: The armed criminal gang that abducted a school teacher and pastor from Chokpot area of South Garo Hills on Tuesday night has been identified as the one involved in a series of kidnappings in the Garo Hills and West Khasi Hills region for the last three years.
The school teacher, Sundaybirth Ch Marak (43), who also happens to be a pastor of the local Baptist church in his village of Kakhija was able to escape from the clutches of the gang while its members were taking rest inside the Angratuli reserve forest in Sibbari area on Wednesday afternoon.
“This is the same gang that has committed a series of abductions of Indian nationals from West and south West Khasi Hills and also from South and West Garo Hills districts. They belong to Bangladesh and their modus operandi was to take their victims across the international border and keep confined until ransom was paid,” reveal South Garo Hills SP Abraham T Sangma.
The group and its leader were identified from photographs displayed to the escaped teacher by police. The victim also revealed that the gang did not have any automatic rifles but possessed three pistols.
The well oiled network of the gang was such that they had even arranged for a vehicle inside Bangladesh to lift the kidnapped pastor once they crossed the international border.
Having walked the entire night from Kakhija village, the kidnappers were taking rest inside Angratuli reserve forest and waiting for dusk to fall so as to cross over when Sundaybirth made a dash for freedom.
While the head of the gang operates from inside Mymensing area of Bangladesh, a Garo Bangladeshi national who use to act as a guide for the GNLA played the major role of entering Indian territory to abduct potential victims and taking them across the international border.
“In most cases, including the abduction of the teacher cum pastor, the Bangladeshi guide identified as Besfield alias Bes led a four member gang to the victim’s house,” said district police chief Abraham Sangma.
The same gang was behind the abduction of a coal baron from Borsora in South West Khasi Hills, over a year ago. They also kidnapped another coal businessman, Benjamin Syiemlieh, from West Khasi Hills, say police.
A huge sum of ransom money is believed to have been exchanged for the safe release of the coal baron.
Nearer home, there have been over half a dozen abduction cases in South and West Garo Hills districts attributed to the same gang. A teacher from Sibbari and another from Dimapara as well as a petty trader from Purakhasia were also victims of the same group. The aged father of a Roman Catholic priest was also abducted by the gang two years ago. The victims were released from Bangladesh only after money was paid to the kidnappers.
The easy movement of criminal gangs from the neighbouring country into India has put the spotlight on the Border Security Force and its ‘vigil. A large part of the Sibbari border region is porous with streams and rivulets passing through the international boundary that criminal gangs make use of for their entry and exit after committing crime.
“Unless strict vigil is in place in the porous areas, criminals will continue to commit crime with impunity,” say border villagers in the Indian side of the international border.