Thaindian News

Guwahati, Sep 15 (IANS) A tea garden owner and a businessman were kidnapped by militants in two separate incidents in Assam, police said Wednesday.
Massive operations were underway to rescue Ajay Subba, owner of a small tea garden in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district, and Chandan Sharma, a businessman in Sonitpur district. Both were kidnapped late Tuesday.

Police said that Subba was kidnapped at gunpoint by suspected militants of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).

“Subba was returning home from the garden around midnight when he was accosted by some gunmen and then abducted,” a police official said, adding that the needle of suspicion pointed to the ULFA.

“All indications are that the kidnappers are from the ULFA and they probably abducted him for ransom.”

Subba is the nephew of controversial former Assam Congress MP and lottery baron Mani Kumar Subba.

In the other incident, Sharma was kidnapped in Sonitpur by tribal separatists of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), police said.

“We suspect the NDFB kidnapped him for money,” an official said.

Both ULFA and the NDFB have, of late, stepped up kidnapping people for ransom - a strategy to generate funds with demands ranging from Rs.500,000 to Rs.1 crore to secure the release of the kidnapped people.