Bru outfit demands talks for safe release of train driver

Claiming responsibility for the kidnapping of a driver of Badarpur (Assam)-Bairabi (Mizoram) passenger train, the United Democratic Liberation Front of Barak Valley (ULFBV)--a Bru militant outfit-- had demanded that the Centre should hold talks with them if it wants the safe release of the hostage. Talking to a newsperson of Kolasib in Mizoram yesterday, a caller who identified himself as ULFBV general secretary said the hostage was safe and in good health under their captivity and would be released only once the central government expresses its willingness to hold talks with the outfit.

The general secretary told the correspondent that they had kidnapped the train drivers to draw the attention of Delhi to the miserable condition of the Bru (also called Reang) community in Assam who are being neglected by the state government. The train driver Tarun Kumar Bhattacharjee, 50, and his assistant S K Sharma, 48, of the passenger train, under Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), were kidnapped by the militants from Charaibak, in Assam s Hailakandi district on the night of October 22. The assistant driver Sharma managed to flee from the militants captivity in the wee hours of Friday last, however, and was admitted to Bairabi government hospital in Mizoram. According to a senior official, when the Bairabi-bound passenger train from Badarpur reached Charaibak near Assam-Mizoram border at 9.30 pm on that night, a group of about six suspected militants, in camouflage, carrying sophisticated arms, stopped the train and jumped into the driver s cabin in the engine. The militants whisked away the driver and his assistant at gunpoint towards the jungles near Assam-Mizoram border, about 80 kms from Badarpur.