Imphal, April 24: Manipur police have arrested one of the Kuki Liberation Army (KLA) militants who had abducted German social worker Heinrich Wolfgang on March 23 and senior telecom official J. Lunkim the previous month.
The militant was arrested along with three other members of the same outfit during a special operation last night at Kamu Koireng under Yairipok police station of Thoubal district. The district superintendent of police led the operation.
The arrested militants were identified as Letkhohao Misao, alias Haopu, of Chandel district, Genlal Vaiphei, Thianminboi Vaiphei and Behma Vaiphei, all hailing from Senapati district. Preliminary interrogation revealed that Letkhohao was involved in the abduction of both Wolfgang and Lunkim, the police said.
Wolfgang, a member of the Bonn-based Evangelicher Entwicklungs Dienst, had been taken hostage while he was touring Imphal East area to monitor projects funded by his NGO. He was freed after 17 days in captivity, with the KLA claiming that it had abducted him not for ransom but to ascertain the motive behind German funding of projects in Manipur.
The KLA had abducted Lunkim just a month earlier while he was visiting a relative at Yairipok along with his wife and children. He was released unhurt a few days later.
Transport operators in Manipur have given the Kuki National Front (KNF), another militant outfit claiming to represent the state’s Kuki community, 36 hours to free the four truckers abducted by its activists from Keithelmanbi on the Imphal-Dimapur road on April 20. The deadline set by the truckers’ association expires at midnight tomorrow.
The association today said it would stop plying trucks on the two national highways in the state if the KNF failed to release the four truckers.
The outfit, which had taken seven truckers hostage earlier, said the abductions were meant to teach transport operators who had not paid “tax” a lesson. It asked all transport operators to clear their “tax” by April 20 or face the consequences.
A combined force of the police, Indian Reserve Battalion and the Assam Rifles is combing the Keithelmanbi area for the abducted truckers. Four persons have been arrested in connection with the abductions.