NHAI men freed after 45 days

NEW DELHI, APRIL 27 : After 45 days in captivity, all five members of an NHAI team working on the East-West corridor project in Assam were freed on Saturday night. Work on the Assam stretch of the corridor had come to a standstill after they were kidnapped on March 12. Now, contractors say they won’t restart work without more security.

The project manager, deputy manager and engineer along with their driver and Personal Security Officer had been kidnapped from near Haflong in the North Cachar Hills by suspected ‘Black Widow’ militants. Except for the project manager, who hails from Bihar, the other four were all from Assam.

“The five men were released on Saturday night and brought to Lumding. While the abductors did contact us, they never told us which outfit they belonged to. The state Government has finally managed to free the men, who are now weak and traumatised. They are all with their families now,” said Dinesh Valecha, director of Valecha Engineering for which the men were working.

“This is our second project in Assam. Though we were aware that North Cachar has insurgency problems, we never anticipated something like this. We are re-evaluating the situation and will hold further discussions with NHAI before we get back to work,” he added. Valecha denied any ransom was paid.

The abductions came soon after the killing of an engineer in January and almost a year after the attack on a contractor’s camp in the Maibong hills of North Cachar which left an engineer dead and two others injured. The PM had then given the go-ahead for the creation of a 1,000-strong force drawn from ex-servicemen to protect NHAI workers in the area. Though the NHAI managed to put together a group of 500 men, there has hardly been any improvement in the situation. Around 200 CRPF personnel were also deployed to protect workers camps across the highway.

Worried, the contractors now say they and will not resume work until security is provided to their men. NHAI officials said attempts were being made to persuade the contractors to come back to work.

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