TURA: The armed criminal gang that abducted a school teacher and pastor from Chokpot area in South Garo Hills on Tuesday night has been identified as the ones behind a series of kidnappings in Garo Hills and West Khasi Hills in the past 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 his abductors resting 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 them confined until ransom was paid,” revealed 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.
Marak informed that the gang even arranged for a vehicle in Bangladesh to transport him once they had crossed the international border.
Having walked the entire night from Kakhija village, the kidnappers decided to rest inside Angratuli reserve forest which provided Sundaybirth with the perfect opportunity to escape. While the head of the gang operates from Mymensing in Bangladesh, a Garo Bangladeshi national who worked as a guide for the GNLA would play the role of entering Indian territory to abduct victims and transport them across the 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 also responsible for the abduction of a coal baron from Borsora in South West Khasi Hills one year back.
“They also kidnapped another coal businessman identified as Benjamin Syiemlieh, from West Khasi Hills,” police informed adding that a huge sum of ransom money is believed to have been exchanged for the safe release of the coal baron.
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 they had received the ransom money.
The easy movement of criminal gangs from the neighbouring country has placed the Border Security Force and its ‘vigil’ in the spotlight. A significant part of the Sibbari border region is porous with streams and rivulets passing through the international boundary which criminal gangs use to carry out their illegal practices.
“Unless strict vigil is in place in the porous areas, criminals will continue to commit crime with impunity,” said the villagers who reside along the border.
