
Cachar Police rescues kidnapped drivers from Manipur after 13-days joint operation
In a major breakthrough, two drivers from Cachar, who were abducted in Manipur, were rescued after 13 days in a joint operation by Assam Police, Manipur Police, and Assam Rifles on Saturday night. The rescue was conducted in the dense forests near the Assam-Manipur border.
On January 6, a militant group in Manipur abducted two drivers, Riazul Haque Laskar from Dholai, and Nasir Uddin from Lakhipur, both hailing from Cachar. They were on their way to Manipur’s Tamenglong district, transporting goods for a construction company named Jandu Construction, with their office in Dholai’s Katakhal. The abduction occurred on their return journey after delivering materials, with the militants demanding a ransom from their families.
Once the incident came to the notice of Cachar Police, they promptly coordinated with Manipur Police and launched a joint search operation along with the Assam Rifles. After 13 days, the two drivers were found unharmed in the dense forest near the Assam-Manipur border during the night. The rescued drivers were brought to the Jirighat outpost in Cachar, where they were handed over to their families.
Cachar Superintendent of Police (SP) Numal Mahatta stated, “Last January 6, two people in two trucks were headed to Manipur with some construction material. They were in Tamenglong district of Manipur and were kidnapped from the Kaiphundai village by some criminals. When we got to know about this, we got in touch with the Manipur Police, the district police of Tamenglong, Jiribam Police along with Assam Rifles and conducted a joint operation along with our Assam Police. In this joint operation, the two kidnapped drivers, Riazul Haque Laskar of Kachudaram, Cachar and Nasir Uddin of Namdailong, Ramgaijang in Jirighat. We have rescued them along with our joint team. After a health examination, we will let them go back home to their families.”
The drivers were located unharmed in the forest during the night operation. According to SP Mahatta, “Our operation has been ongoing in the dense forest of Assam-Manipur border. The joint team has been actively cordoning the forest, and when the kidnappers got the tip of this operation, they were bound to release the two kidnapped.”
One of the rescued drivers recounted that they were abducted by five armed militants who demanded ransom. However, the militants abandoned them due to the intensified police search.
The SP lauded the efforts of the joint operation, adding that no ransom was paid. While he refrained from naming the militant group involved, a faction of the NSCN was earlier named by the families of the kidnapped.
Additional SP of Jiribam Police, Manipur, praised the coordination between the forces, which led to the successful rescue. After the operation, the drivers were handed over to their families at the Jirighat outpost in Cachar.
It needs to be mentioned here that when the families of the victims asked for help from the construction company, they paid no attention to their pleas. Rather shut them out of the company’s office gate.
This comes in light of the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur, where multiple people have been kidnapped and reported missing, including Laishram Kamalbabu Singh, a native of Cachar’s Udharbond-Gossaipur village. He lived in Khukrul in Imphal West, and was a works supervisor for a contractor working with the Military Engineering Services (MES) in Leimakhong Military Station of the 57th Mountain Division. He went missing from the Army camp on November 25.
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