Guwahati, Feb. 10: The abductors of the four employees engaged in seismic survey in the troubled North Cachar Hills district have established contact with the Indian Oil Tanking Limited, following which negotiations began for their release.
The proprietor of the company and son of late Hiteswar Saikia, Ashok, today said a group, which identified itself as the Dimasa National Liberation Front (DNLF), claimed responsibility for the abduction and assured him that the hostages were safe.
Police, however, are almost clueless about the group.
Suresh Kumar, Nitish Kumar, Mahinder and Sarthak of the Chennai-based Eagle Marketing Corporation were carrying out a seismic survey in Langting for the Indian Oil Tanking Limited, when they were abducted on February 5.
Two drivers — Dipak Rabha and Mohammad Lalson Khan — who were present at the site during the incident, were, however, left unharmed by the militants.
Saikia did not specify whether any ransom demand had been made, saying it would not be proper to reveal everything at this juncture.
Police sources in North Cachar Hills district said the Front was a rag-tag group formed recently with demand for a separate state as its agenda.
Interestingly, the leader of the group identified himself as Bret Lee.
“It is definitely not his real name. Maybe he is a great fan of the Australian fast bowler and thus has assumed it,” a police official in Karbi Anglong said.
The group was primarily involved in petty extortion cases before this abduction.
“In the past few months, we have also arrested a few members of the group. But they could not say much about the structure of the organisation, leading us to believe that some individuals had got together with the sole aim of making some easy money in the guise of revolution and under the name of DNLF,” the police official said.
When the group of eight to 10 armed militants in military fatigues whisked away the surveyors, the police had initially suspected it to be the handiwork of the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel) as the outfit had earlier targeted companies involved in development projects.
Though the new group claimed responsibility of the abduction, the police are not ready to give the DHD (J) a clean chit just as yet.
“Some loose ends need to be tied before we give DHD (J) a clean chit,” the official said.
He said the police were trying to ascertain whether the DNLF is just a front of the DHD (J) or a separate militant organisation.
“The little information we have about the group, which came to light a couple of months back, does not suggest that it is capable of keeping four persons as hostages in the face of the massive search operation launched by the security forces,” the official said.
