DIMAPUR— A truck driver, who was on a delivery duty for a soon-to-be-open Reliance Smart Point at Burma Camp in Dimapur, was abducted by two unidentified miscreants on Monday morning.
The Gaon Bura (GB) of UNB Naga Colony, Burma Camp, Toshi Ozukum, told Eastern Mirror that the driver was unloading the goods delivered for the Reliance Smart Point store when the miscreants came in a Maruti Suzuki Alto car around 8:30 am-9:30 am and abducted him.
It is said that the building that houses the Reliance store belongs to Dimapur Urban Council Chairmen Federation (DUCCF) president Zasivikho Zakiesato.
The GB informed that the truck driver was later released at the Burma Camp junction after seizing the vehicle key. The miscreants also took the phone numbers of the driver and the person in-charge of the company, as well as left their phone number for further ‘negotiation’.
He said the driver alerted the council, who in turn reported the same to the East Police Station around 10 am, before the police arrived at the scene ‘immediately’.
Sources informed that a third party negotiated with an insurgency group at its camp on the matter, after which the vehicle key was returned.
The driver was taken to the police station to take his statement but no first information report (FIR) was filed on the matter, it was informed.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]The Burma Camp gaon buras, women leaders and the DUCCF expressed discontentment over the incident, saying that such activities discourage business from flourishing in the state.
Maintaining that there are many such incidents in the state that go unreported due of fear, DUCCF president Zakiesato said if such incidents go unreported, it will only encourage miscreants to carry out illegal taxation and harassment to the society.
He asserted that such cases should be reported to the police in order to stop harassment to the business community.
The GB of Niu Colony, Hozka K Awomi, said that when the people of the locality were happy about the opening of the Smart Point, such untoward incidents will cause fear in the minds of the people who want to invest in Nagaland as well as discourage entrepreneurs.
The government is also turning a deaf ear to such incidents; orders should be given to arrest such miscreants, he pointed out.
Meanwhile, the driver who underwent a harrowing time, refused to divulge any detail about the incident, fearing that it might get him into trouble.
Traumatised by the event that unfolded, he said he would continue to work in Assam but would never return to Nagaland.