File photo of ONGC logo | Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | Bloomberg
New Delhi: Unknown armed militants, suspected to be belonging to banned ULFA (I) group, abducted three employees of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) from the Lakwa field in Sivasagar district of Assam.
According a Tweet by ONGC "The abducted employees were taken by the miscreants in an operational vehicle belonging to ONGC". The vehicle was later found abandoned near the Nimonagarh jungle close to the Assam-Nagaland border.
Qouting a senior official a PTI report says that the whereabouts of the kidnapped employees are not known yet and kidnappers have not made any contact with the families or the company so far.
The official added that the company has filed a complaint with the local police and beefed up security at installations in Assam.
"All three employees are local Assamese who have been identified as M M Gogoi and Ritul Saikia both junior engineer assistants (production) —and Alakesh Saikia, a junior technician (production)", said another tweet
"Higher officials of the State Police are on the site. Local administration has been informed about the incident and ONGC is in constant touch with the higher authorities," another tweet added.
ONGC, which has been exploring and producing oil and gas in the Upper Assam region since the early 1960s, has around 2,000 employees, officers and support staff in the Sivasagar asset.