Imphal/Shillong, Sept. 18: Without firing a single shot, army personnel rescued a senior official of the Manipur State Electricity Board late last night, within hours of his abduction by militants of the Kangleipak Communist Party (City Meitei).

Superintending engineer (planning and design) Ngangom Birjit Singh, posted at the headoffice in Imphal, was handed over to his family through local legislator Salam Joy Singh this morning, army and police sources said.

The commander of 9 sector (Manipur range) Brig. S.K. Jha told reporters in Shillong that Assam Rifles personnel detected the official and his abductors with the use of sophisticated night-vision devices.

“If we had followed past examples, we would have shot the militants dead. But then rescuing the hostage would have become difficult. The night-vision devices helped us to differentiate the militants from the hostage as the gun-toting men were young and the unarmed man they were holding was a little elderly,” he added.

The engineer was abducted from his house last evening.

Birjit Singh told his rescuers that two persons came to his house at Haoreibi Awang Leikai in Imphal West around 7pm and abducted him at gunpoint.

He said the duo came soon after he returned from office where he had attended Vishwakarma Puja during the day.

The two, who identified themselves as cadres of the Kangleipak Communist Party (City Meitei), took him to Samurou, about 4km from his house.

Here, they picked up a scooter and proceeded to nearby Thongkhong Luxmi bazar, not very far from Samurou.

They left the scooter near the bazar and took him towards the paddy field on foot.

Troops of the 12 Maratha Light Infantry, operating under the Assam Rifles, were lying in wait for the abductors in the paddy field. They overpowered the kidnappers and safely rescued the engineer.

“We did not fire any shots. We had got information from the police about the abduction. We alerted our boys guarding Mayang Imphal BSNL tower located in that area. Our boys at the watchtower, using night vision equipment, spotted them and we laid the ambush,” an Assam Rifles source said in Imphal.

The arrested militants, identified as Nongmeikappam Joychandra, 37, and Laishram Joymangol, 24, have been handed over to Mayang Imphal police.

A 9mm pistol with one magazine having six live rounds, a Chinese hand grenade, two mobile phones and Rs 1,160 were recovered from them.

Birjit Singh told the army and police that the two did not give any reason for abducting him. Police officials said they could not question him any further as he was in a state of shock. They said more details would be known only when they questioned him later.

In an unrelated development, police told reporters today that they had recovered and safely exploded an improvised explosive devise planted by militants near a shop at Hafta Golapati in Imphal East yesterday. However, they could not say whether the rebels had targeted the shop or security forces.