Bettiah (Bihar), Oct 29: Police today rescued 13 people, including four government employees, after an encounter with their unidentified kidnappers who had taken them hostage from a bus in west Champaran district of Bihar.
DIG, Champaran district, C R Kaswan, said some jeep-borne armed men forced a private bus to stop at a secluded place near Chamania more and took the driver and 12 passengers, including four irrigation department engineers and a businessman, as hostages on gun point. Earlier police had said six passengers were abducted.
As they headed with them to an unknown destination, police confronted them at Bhreiari and an encounter took place, he said.
Some of the miscreants were injured in the encounter but all of them escaped into a dense forest, Kaswan said. Police is still giving them a hot chase, he said.

The bus belonging Luv-Kush Travels was on way to Bagha from Balmikinagar when the incident took place.
The engineers posted at Balmikinagar barrage on Gandak river were identified as Kapil Narayan, Awadhesh Kumar Mandal, Dhirendra Kumar and Mohan Lal. The driver and businessman have been identified as Hari Singh and Prabhu Sao respectively. All of them have left for Bagha.
This was the second case of kidnapping in as many days in the state. Yesterday a homoeopathic doctor and two others were kidnapped by criminals for ransom from Bhitarauh-Tirhut Canal area of Bagha. Bureau Report