The search for two employees of a private oil exploration company abducted by the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent or ULFA (I) has been futile, officials in Arunachal Pradesh said.
Cadres of the ULFA (I) had on December 21 abducted drilling superintendent Pranab Kumar Gogoi from Assam’s Sivasagar district and radio operator Ram Kumar from Bihar. They were engaged by the New Delhi-based Quippo Oil and Gas Infrastructure Ltd at a hydrocarbon drilling site in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district.
The outfit had threatened to take “extreme action” against the two men if their company failed to pay the ransom by February 17.
“The police, along with the Army and the Indian Air Force, conducted operations while trying to ensure that they are not harmed. Modern technology was used too, but the topography has made the efforts very difficult,” R.P. Upadhyaya, Director-General of Police in Arunachal Pradesh, told journalists.
He said the security forces had been using every channel to get the duo released while indicating that the extremists could be keeping the Quippo employees hostage across the border in Myanmar.
Changlang and adjoining Tirap and Longding districts are often used by the extremist groups of the northeast to move to and from their hideouts in the Sagaing Division of Myanmar. The division is controlled by the Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, which offers shelter to the other outfits.
ULFA(I) chief Paresh Baruah had extended the deadline for Quippo to get its employees released after drawing flak from academics and activists in Assam for his veiled threat to kill them.
