Abducted ONGC Employee Ritul Saikia Released

GUWAHATI: Abducted ONGC employee Ritul Saikia has been released by the United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) on Friday morning.

According to reports, Saikia was released by the banned outfit at Mon district in Nagaland-Myanmar border.

Earlier Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma urged the ULFA(I) chief Paresh Baruah to release the captivated ONGC employee.

Within minutes of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's 'humble request' to ULFA-I Chief Paresh Barua to release abducted ONGC staffer Ritul Saikia from the banned outfit's captivity, the outfit made an announcement stating that Saikia who has been in captivity since April 21 this year would be released in one to four days.

Sharing the information with a local news channel of Assam, ULFA Commander-in-Chief Baruah said that it is more than 200 percent confirmed that Ritual Saikia would return home hail and hearty.

CM Sarma, during the press conference, said that it would not be prudent to make the functioning of the oil companies operating out of Assam difficult as they are a major source of revenue for the Assam government unlike the tea industry that of late, been contributing nothing to the government coffers.

Just two days back on May 18, CM Sarma had met Ritul Saikia's parents and his wife and four-month-old baby at their residence in Titabar, Jorhat. The Chief Minister had met the family of Ritul Saikia just a day after taking over as the CM of Assam on May 10. He had met them during his Majuli trip on May 11.

Ritul Saikia was kidnapped along with two other ONGC employees from ONGC's Lakwa oil field in the Sibsagar district of Assam on April 21 this year. The other two employees, Mohini Mohan Gogoi and Alakesh Saikia were rescued during a joint operation conducted by Assam Police, Army, and Nagaland Police on April 24, within three days of being abducted by ULFA-I. They were rescued from the Mon district of Nagaland.

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