GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma welcomed the release of Ritul Saikia, the ONGC employee abducted by ULFA-I militants.
“Heartily welcome release of Ritul Saikia, ONGC employee abducted by ULFA, early today! Grateful to Honble UHM
@AmitShah
for constant guidance. Hope an era of peace & development is firmly established in state with cooperation of one and all. Pray to Almighty for His Blessings,” Sarma writes on Twitter.
Heartily welcome release of Ritul Saikia, ONGC employee abducted by ULFA, early today! Grateful to Honble UHM @AmitShah for constant guidance.
Hope an era of peace & development is firmly established in state with cooperation of one and all. Pray to Almighty for His Blessings pic.twitter.com/9kjuVTNKhb— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) May 22, 2021
Ritul was released near the Indo-Myanmar border in Longwa village of Mon district in Nagaland on Saturday morning.
A top official told PTI Saikia was released around 7 am on the Myanmar side and he walked around 40 minutes to cross to the Indian side.
“Saikia has been taken to the Mon police station by the Army and Nagaland Police. A team of the Assam Police is also present there and doing the formalities to bring him back home,” he added.
Three employees of the Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) were on April 21 kidnapped by ULFA(I) militants from the Lakwa oilfield in Sivasagar district along the Assam-Nagaland border.
Two employees, Mohini Mohan Gogoi and Alakesh Saikia, were rescued on April 24 after an encounter near the India- Myanmar border in the Mon district of Nagaland, while the search for Saikia was on.
Read: ONGC OFFICIAL RITUL SAIKIA WITH ASSAM POLICE, LIKELY TO REACH HOME BY EVENING