Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal directs officials to rescue kidnapped ONGC employees

GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday condemned the kidnapping of three Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) employees by suspected ULFA(I) militants and directed the chief secretary and the DGP to take all steps to rescue them.

In a series of tweets, Sonowal denounced the abduction of ONGC employees Mohini Mohan Gogoi, Alakesh Saikia and Ritul Saikia from an oilfield in Sivasagar district. "I have asked CS Shri Jishnu Barua and @DGPAssamPolice Shri Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta to take all possible measures for their release," he added.

Special DGP, L&O Shri @gpsinghassam is at Lakuwa and investigation regarding the abduction is underway.

— Sarbananda Sonowal (@sarbanandsonwal) April 21, 2021

Sonowal also said that Special DGP (Law and Order) Gyanendra Pratap Singh has rushed to the spot and is monitoring the investigation on the abduction.

The public sector unit said in a statement that the three employees were abducted by "unknown armed miscreants" in the early hours of Wednesday from a rig site of the ONGC in Lakwa oilfield near the Assam-Nagaland border.

A senior official of Sivasagar district administration said that suspected ULFA(I) militants are behind this kidnapping and they fled through Nagaland. No demand for ransom or anything else has been received so far.

During the first week of April, two employees of the Quippo Oil and Gas Infrastructure, a New Delhi-based private firm, were released by ULFA(I) insurgents who had kidnapped them three-and-a-half months ago on December 21 last year.

The two were abducted from Kumchaikha hydrocarbon drilling site in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh and the ULFA(I) demanded a ransom of Rs 20 crore.