GUWAHATI: Two of the three employees of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), abducted by the militants of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) from Assam, were rescued by the security forces after a gunfight in Nagaland’s Mon district.
“In an operation last (Friday) night, Indian Army along with Assam Rifles troops rescued two abductees in the general area of Mon. Operations are still in progress. The names of rescued abductees are Alakesh Saikia and Mohini Mohan Gogoi. One AK 47 has also been recovered,” Army sources said.
Junior engineering assistant Saikia and junior technician Gogoi were abducted along with Ritul Saikia, also a junior technician, from an ONGC work over rig site in the Lakwa field of Assam’s Sivasagar district in the wee hours of Wednesday by five ULFA militants.
In a statement, the ULFA said the three ONGC employees were handed over to the villagers of Totokchingnyu as the outfit was concerned about their safety amidst the gunfight.
“Since the security forces have not said anything about the fate of the third person, we suspect that he was either killed or kept hidden by the security forces deliberately,” the statement said.
The ULFA said it had exchanged fire intermittently with over 500 personnel of Army, Assam Rifles, and police from 10 pm of Friday till 2:30 am of Saturday.
The Assam police earlier arrested 14 people, including ULFA sympathizers, in connection with the incident.
Official sources in Nagaland said the gunfight broke out at around 2 am at a forested area near Totokchingnyu village in Mon. The sources could not specify the number of the militants but confirmed that it was a mixed group of militants from the ULFA and the Yung Aung faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland or NSCN (YA).
“The personnel had managed to rescue the two persons during the gunfight. The third person is still in the custody of the militants. An operation to rescue him is on,” the sources added.
The NSCN (YA) is the only Naga insurgent group outside the purview of peace talks. Most of its members are Nagas from Myanmar.
The ULFA operates out of the soil of Myanmar and is a component of an umbrella organisation of militant groups from the Northeast which is headed by the NSCN (YA). The outfits work in close coordination with one another.