City engineer kidnapped, rescued in Shillong

Hyderabad: A kidnapped engineer of a Hyderabad-based Road Construction Company in Meghalaya was rescued on Wednesday after a gunfight with his abductors in West Garo Hills district, police said.

According to an agency report from Shillong, Wassem Ahmed, an assistant engineer of BSC-C&C (JV) Road Construction Company, was abducted at gun point nine days ago by United Garo Security Force (UGSF) militants from Samanda-Jengjal junction in East Garo Hills district.

Ahmed, 25, who is from Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir, is involved in the construction of Shillong-Nongstoin-Willia mnagar-Tura highway.

"We rescued Ahmed on Wednesday evening from Gabil area after an exchange of fire with his abductors," Inspector General of Police G H P Raju, operations in-charge, told IANS.

He said the abductors left Ahmed after security forces retaliated. "We do not know if any of the abductors were injured during the exchange of fire, but a manhunt is on to nab them as we have got some lead on their identities," Raju said.

Meghalaya Police have launched a coordinated rescue operation for the last five days to mount pressure on the UGSF militants to release Ahmed, which also led to the arrest of six UGSF militants.

Meanwhile, police remained clueless about the whereabouts of an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer abducted by suspected Garo militants in Meghalaya's South Garo Hills district, bordering Bangladesh.

On September 24, militants of the A'chik Songna An'pachakgipa Kotok (ASAK) outfit kidnapped Intelligence Bureau officer Bikash Singh and cloth merchant Kamal Saha at gunpoint from an area between Ampangre and Panda reserve forest, police said.

Though, ASAK has denied its involvement in the kidnapping, police maintained that the needle of suspicion was particularly on the group.

"There is no development in this case. We have no clue at all about their whereabouts but the operation is on to trace and rescue the abducted officer and the other person," Raju said.