GUWAHATI
Suspected extremists abducted at least three coal miners from the Arunachal Pradesh-Assam border early morning on February 18.
The incident happened in Phinbiro, a village straddling the inter-State border. While the authorities in Assam’s Tinsukia district said the miners were abducted from across the border, their counterparts in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district claimed otherwise.
“According to information received from Arunachal Pradesh, three people were abducted and one of them is from Assam. We are trying to gather more information,” Tinsukia’s Superintendent of Police, Gaurav Abhijit Dilip told The Hindu.
Locals, however, said a seven-member group of extremists belonging to at least two outfits took 10 miners at gunpoint toward the India-Myanmar border through Changlang.
The coal belt along the Arunachal Pradesh-Assam border is one of the oldest in the northeast.
