Bongaigaon, Feb. 26: The activists of the All-Assam Bengali Youth Students Federation staged an hour-long blockade on National Highway-31 at Srirampur in Kokrajhar today, demanding the rescue of Ranjit Dutta, 40, a small trader.

Dutta was abducted on Tuesday evening from his residence at Bhabanipur in Kokrajhar town by four unidentified motorbike-born men.

Initially, the students' federation planned to stage the blockade for 12 hours but cut it short after a request from the district administration. The group gave an ultimatum to the police to rescue Dutta with 24 hours.

Nearly 500 heavy and light vehicles, including goods-carrying trucks, were stranded on the national highway because of the blockade, led by the federation's BTAD zonal president Gopal Ghose.

After the blockade, the president of the Kokrajhar unit of the Greater Assam Bengali Development Committee, Jitesh Chakrabarty, addressed a news conference at his Gossaigaon office, 2km from the blockade site, and demanded Dutta's early rescue.

The Bengali population is over 20,000 in Kokrajhar district and over 3,000 in Kokrajhar town area, said the federation's leaders.