Hostage’s wife, mother appeal to ULFA-I chief to release him

Agartala, Feb 9 : Family members of one of the two private oil company employees, kidnapped by the United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) from Arunachal Pradesh in December, on Tuesday appealed to the outlawed anti-talk outfit’s chief Paresh Barua to release him.
Delhi-based Quippo Oil and Gas Infrastructure Ltd’s drilling superintendent Pranab Kumar Gogoi and radio operator Ram Kumar were abducted at gunpoint from the drilling site in Innao area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district on December 21 last year.
Gogoi’s mother and wife, through a Guwahati-based television channel, ardently urged Barua to release him immediately.
“I request Paresh Barua to free my husband or kill us. Our parents are ill and the children are not eating food and not even going to schools since the abduction. I appealed to the Assam Government too to take proper steps for the release of my husband,” Gogoi’s weeping wife said in Assamese.
Gogoi’s mother, in a similar appeal through the TV channel, said: “I appeal to the ULFA chief to release our only son. He is the only earning member in our family. I also request the Assam Government to facilitate the release our son at the earliest.” The ULFA-I, in a statement last month, said that it has set February 17 to decide the fate of the two employees and asked authorities to meet their demands before that.