Even six days after a group of armed militants stopped a running train and whisked away its driver and assistant driver in Sonitpur district in northern Assam close to the Arunachal Pradesh border,the police have not been able to trace the duo. The abductors meanwhile have asked for Rs 1 crore for their release. The two driver Nirmal Chandra Buragohain and co-driver Ajit Chiring Phukan were kidnapped on August 29 from between Gamani and Bhalkupong railway stations in full view of other railway staff. The police have suspected it to be an act of the anti-talk faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). The police on Wednesday conducted a raid inside the Balipara reserved forest close to the inter-state border and managed to arrest one person suspected to be a member of the gang that had carried out the abduction. The police also claimed to have found a temporary camp that the militants had used before abandoning it. Police claimed that the arrested militant,Dwithung Basumatary alias Durga,who was remanded to police custody by a Tezpur court,had confessed his involvement in the abduction. He is also understood to have told the police that the two drivers have been kept confined in a hideout inside the jungle on the other side of the border. The railway authorities meanwhile are in constant touch with the police to secure safe release of the two drivers. We have no role in rescuing the two persons except for exerting pressure on the police, S Hajong,chief public relations officer of the Northeast Frontier Railway said on Friday.
