Tura, May 7: A group of armed Garo militants posing as coal labourers entered a depot near the international border in Garo hills and abducted a manager last night.

Altogether six militants disguised as labourers flagged down a coal truck that was proceeding towards Mrong Enterprise export company at Gasuapara, 45km from the district capital of Baghmara in South Garo Hills, around 9 last night.

After boarding the truck, the militants, who were believed to be from the banned Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), brandished small arms and directed the driver to proceed to Mrong Enterprise from where they abducted the coal company’s manager, Dipu Das. He was taken away at gunpoint into the surrounding forest that stretches for miles all along the border region of South Garo Hills.

The coal export company, one of several dozen located near the border, ships several tonnes of coal from the Garo hills to Bangladesh on trucks everyday.

“We have information that the GNLA area commander, Pangkam, sent a team of militants to kidnap the coal company’s manager,” district police chief Davis Nestell R. Marak told this correspondent today. One of the militants involved in the abduction has been identified as Odek, a confidant of the area commander.

The same group was involved in the killing of a trader, Satyender Prasad, in Chokpot village of the same district on Sunday morning. The militants killed Prasad after he refused to accompany them into the forest during an abduction attempt barely 100 metres from Chokpot police station.

In Gasuapara, the coal export companies have been running depots for several decades. Coal, which is brought in from interior Nangalbibra coal mines, is dumped at Gasuapara depots from where it is once again put into trucks and exported to neighbouring Bangladesh through an international export point located along the border.

A police picket mans the export point. The police team also guards the customs office located nearby while the border is guarded by BSF personnel.

A couple of years ago, Garo militants from another armed organisation daringly raided the customs office and kidnapped a central customs official. He was released several weeks later.