Suspected militants belonging to the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) on late Saturday evening abducted a top official of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) from Assam’s Sonitpur district.
Police said that the abducted official had been identified as Anil Kumar Agarwal and he was posted in one of the under-construction projects of the NHPC in Tawang in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh.
Agarwal, who had been working in the capacity of General Manager, 800-MW power project, in Tawang was on his way to Tezpur from Tawang on Saturday. However, at Bhalukpong some armed youth stopped his vehicle and whisk him away at gunpoint.
“The miscreants left his vehicle and the driver, who immediately informed this to the Assam Rifles camp at Chariduar,” said ADG (law and Order) of Assam Police AP Raut. He said that operation had been intensified in and around the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border to trace and rescue the NHPC official.
“The driver told us that there were four armed men who came to abduct Agarwal and they all came on motorcycle,” he said.
“We suspect the hands of NDFB anti-talk faction led by IK Songbijit. There had been large-scale presence of the outfit in Sonitpur district and other areas along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border,” he said, adding that some people have already been detained.
“Police have also recovered one of the motorcycle, used in abduction of Agarwal,” Raut said, adding that there is, however, no ransom demand yet by the militants.
It may be mentioned here that the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants had been carrying out large-scale extortion drives in Sonitpur and the areas along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border since last few months.
An NHPC spokesman confirmed the abduction on condition of anonymity but said the organisation has no further information. The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) spokesman said Agarwal was supposed to go to Bangalore on Sunday.