The militants, who kidnapped Chandel district deputy commissioner Yambem Thamkishore, have demanded huge ransom and put some conditions for his release, official sources said in Imphal on Wednesday. Though contact with the abductors had been established through some mediators, details of discussions with them and their identity could not be disclosed, the sources said.
The sources also refused to divulge the ransom and the conditions put forward by the militants for securing his release. Police, aided by paramilitary forces, continued search for the deputy commissioner who was kidnapped near his office on Monday.
The eight security personnel who were escorting Thamkishore were put under suspension as the militants were able to take away all the arms, including sophisticated weapons, from them, the sources said. Meanwhile, representatives of the seven Naga tribes in Chandel district held a meeting on Tuesday and appealed to the underground United Kuki Liberation Front, who they said were Thamkishore's kidnappers, to release him on humanitarian ground. A Naga representative who attended the meeting said over phone from Chandel that the people of the town would launch an agitation if he was not released. Bureau Report