Assam police on Sunday night rescued abducted official of Meghalaya’s Sericulture Department Dilip Dutta Medhi after an encounter in which four militants of little known Rabha National Liberation Front (RNLF), who held the official captive, were killed at a hilly place under the Dudhnoi police station in lower Assam’s Goalpara district.
Mr. Medhi, an official of the sericulture department in North Garo Hills district of Meghalaya was abducted by RNLF militants on November 14 when he was on his way to Guwahati.
Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) S.N. Singh told The Hindu the Assam police launched an assault on the RNLF militants, who had held Mr. Medhi captive on a hill along Assam-Meghalaya border under Dudhnoi police station.
During the rescue operation in which an encounter ensued and in retaliatory fire the four militants were killed.
He said the RNLF was formed in 1997 but most of its cadres surrendered and about four or five leaders who remained had of late been trying to revive it through activities like extortion, kidnapping.
The incident came a day ahead of the third and the final phase of elections to the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) comprising parts of Goalpara and Kamrup districts. In another encounter between the police and militant National Democratic Front of Boroland (Songbijit faction) at Monglajhora in Kokrajhar district, a militant of the outfit was killed, he said.
Earlier in the day suspected militants of Karbi People’s Liberation Tigers (KPLT) abducted eight persons from near Kaziranga but released them later.
