Guwahati, June 21: The National Democratic Front of Boroland abducted a businessman from Sonitpur last night — its sixth captive from the district in the past two months.

Madhab Bhattarai, a rice mill owner, was snatched at gunpoint from his house in Nahoroni village under Missamari police station in Sonitpur district last night.

Police said at least five persons armed with assorted weapons came to Bhattarai’s residence late last night and took him away towards the Arunachal Pradesh foothills.

“The armed men fired seven rounds in the air to frighten off people who gathered in the area,” a police official at Missamari police station said.

Five persons, including a schoolboy, are still in the custody of NDFB militants — all of them being kidnapped within a span of 15 days in April.

The NDFB has been active on the inter-state border of Arunachal Pradesh, abducting several persons including an Indian Forest Service official from Pune, V.S. Bardekar.

The IFS official had gone to Daimara village in West Kameng district to photograph butterflies when armed men kidnapped him.

The outfit also abducted three businessmen and an engineer from the Sejusa area East Kameng district recently and extracted several lakh rupees before releasing them.

“The families have little option but to pay up in order to save them,” a source said.

“Extortion by the NDFB militants in the area is also rampant — even government officials have to pay,” he said.

The militants find haven in a cluster of Bodo villages and their jungle camps, which are almost impenetrable.

“Security forces cannot even think of entering these jungles fearing ambush,” the source said.

The abducted, however, are treated well.

“They (the hostages) said they were well looked after in captivity...they used to be served good food and even premium alcoholic beverages. In fact, when one of them asked his abductors why they were spending so much on them, he replied it is your money anyway,” the source said quoting one of those abducted and later released.

Security forces in Assam have cited inaccessibility to the foothills of the Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh as their biggest hurdle in the state where NDFB militants are believed to have kept these hostages from Assam.

Security forces of both the states did conduct a few operations in these hilly leach-infested jungles but in vain.

“There are no human settlements in about 60km in and around these areas. It is totally impossible to raid these camps unless one has concrete information,” a police official had said.