Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, March 07 2009:
Some labourers engaging in timber smuggling in Ukhrul have been reportedly abducted for ransom by some unidentified persons and taken away across the international border, a highly reliable police source said here.
Though there were no formal complaints with regard to the missing of the er to the Ukhrul police, a police officer of the district who did not want to reveal his name said that the abducted labours have been carried away to Myanmar crossing the international border.
The labours were abducted on February 28 for ransom from the timber smugglers.
The exact number of labourers taken into custody by the kidnappers not be confirmed but it is said that police believed the number is over 10 including some villagers of Poi village of the district.
The labourers were engaged by seven timber smugglers doing their business in the Indo-Myanmar and labourers were engaging in smuggling timers from across the Myanmar border.
Source expressed suspicion of kidnapping the labourers Sometimes back a former cadre of the NSCN(IM) but now defected from the outfit and formed a new group named Wishful and his colleagues demanding extortion money would be behind the abduction of the labourers.
The source also recounted that sometime back had killed one contractor named William for not meeting their demand in Imphal area and they are keeping the abducted labourers Ngachan village located within the Myanmar territory.
Under the leadership of Wishful, the group defected from NSCN(IM) has been engaging in the collection of house tax and demanding money from the contractors in Ukhrul district.