Source: The Sangai Express
Kohima, June 07 (NNN):
Unidentified gunmen abducted nine passengers of a taxi near Tobu town in Mon district of Nagaland this morning and later killed two of them.
Eleven passengers were going from Tobu to Mon town this morning in a Tata Sumo when about ten gunmen ambushed the vehicle.
The driver and a girl were set free and nine persons, six of whom are Tobu villagers, were whisked away in a car.
Eight of the abducted passengers were labourers of the PWD/Housing department going to Mon district to collect their monthly pay, sources said.
Police and the district administrations of Mon and Tuensang have been alerted.
�We have found two dead bodies in the Yietyong river in Tuensang district but there is no trace of the other passengers,� Mon district Deputy Commissioner, LT Konyak informed Newmai News Network this evening.
Konyak said the kidnappers are suspected to belong to the Chang tribe and belong to a self-styled �Self-Defence Force� of the Chang tribe.
He said that the car entered Tuensang district and both administrations are working together to trace the vehicle.
Till late afternoon there was no clue where the abductors might have taken the hostages, nor was there a definite motive.
However, Konyak said that the incident might be a fresh beginning to inter-tribal clashes between the Konyak and Chang tribes.
Both tribes have been fighting relentlessly since the late 1980s for control of lands in Tobu area.
While the Changs claim that the rivers in the area have Chang names as their forefathers own it, the Konyaks claim they have been owners for generations.
The area in question is huge and fertile but due to violence farmers hardly tilt the lands.
Tobu has a unique history with its own dialect and inter-marriages between Konyaks and Changs within the village.
Of late, however, villagers have claimed they are Konyaks and that the hills belong to them.
On the other side, Changs offer resistance to Tobu�s Konyak villagers.