Surveyors recount ordeal

DHD-J men rescued us from captors, say employees

(From left) Nitish Kumar, Mahinder Kumar, C. Suresh and D.S.K. Sarthak at the press meet on Saturday. A Telegraph picture Guwahati, Feb 22 : The four abducted surveyors of a Chennai-based company, who came out of their captivity a few days ago, today said they were rescued by the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the Dima Halam Daogah after a gunbattle with their captors. C. Suresh, Nitish Kumar, Mahinder Kumar and D.S.K. Sarthak, engaged in seismic survey in the troubled North Cachar Hills district for the Chennai-based Eagle Marketing Corporation, were abducted from the remote Langting area on February 5. Narrating their experience in captivity, the four surveyors said nine heavily armed men had kept them captive, but had not tortured or ill-treated them. “They made us walk from one place to another throughout the day. But otherwise they did not ill-treat us,” Sarthak said. A nascent outfit, Dimasa National Liberation Front, had claimed responsibility for the abduction. Initially, the police had suspected that the DHD (J) was behind the abduction. Sarthak said on the morning of February 17, while they were being shifted from one place to another in the thick jungle, their captors were suddenly attacked around 10am. “Before we could understand anything, the men, who were escorting us, started retaliating. The gunbattle lasted for 15 minutes after which our abductors fled,” he added. He said they were rescued by militants of the DHD (J) and handed over to the apex Dimasa tribal body, Jatikhe Naiso Hasom, the next day. The apex Dimasa organisation, in turn, handed them over to the police on February 19. The DHD (J) launched the rescue operation after Ashok Saikia, son of former chief minister Hiteshwar Saikia and the proprietor of the Indian Oil Tanking Limited (IOTL), which has engaged Eagle Marketing Corporation for the seismic survey, assured to broker peace with the Centre on behalf of the militant group. Saikia said he would use his family’s “good relations” with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to broker peace with the DHD (J). Singh, the Rajya Sabha MP from the state, is a tenant of the Saikias’ Sarumotoria residence here. Talking to reporters this evening, Saikia and the director of operations of Eagle Marketing Corporation, Veeraiah, said the seismic survey, that had been suspended following the abductions, would be resumed soon. “We have no intention to forgo the work. We have asked the state government to provide us more security,” Veeraiah said.