Chandel public sets 10 am deadline today for DC release

Imphal, March 19: The whereabouts of kidnapped Chandel DC Yambem Thamkishore Singh is not yet known till now. However state forces led by DIG (Range) V Zathang and aided by paramilitary troops are continuing large scale operation to track the kidnapped bureaucrat. It may be recalled that, the kidnapping of the DC took place near the Chandel electricity office just two km away north of Chandel P/S. The DC was driving from Imphal to his office along with his wife and a security escort in two Gypsys. The DC was accompanied by eight personnel of the Manipur Rifles at the time of the abduction, led by Naik Gunamani of 8 MR. As soon as the Gypsy reached the kidnap site, armed men stopped the vehicles, surrounded it, and the escort personnel were overpowered. The kidnappers thereafter took the DC in his own Gypsy MN01/8600 and drove away leaving behind the security personnel and his wife. The armed men took away six SLRs with 400 rounds, two carbines with ninety rounds. Meanwhile the representatives of seven Naga tribes in the Chandel district met today in an emergency meeting to appeal to the underground United Kuki Liberation Front, UKLF, who they say are the captors of the Chandel DC, to release the latter immediately on humanitarian ground and in the interest of the Chandel public by 10 am on March 20. The meeting resolved that if the militant organization failed to oblige the Chandel public will launch an agitation, responsibility of the consequences and the fallouts of which will be borne entirely by the kidnappers. The meeting also expressed the opinion that the kidnapping of the DC Chandel was totally uncalled for and that it was an insult on the Chandel public. The meeting in unambiguous terms appealed to the UKLF for the release of the DC and also not to ever repeat such inhuman acts again. The meeting which called itself the Chandel Public Emergency Meeting, CPEM, appointed TS Chumhring as session chairman and M Tolkham as session secretary.