It’s been three days and there has neither clues nor news of the missing man
Gakiling, Sarpang: As of last evening, police and security personnel on both sides of the border were still looking for clues, in connection with the abduction of a village astrologer from Sarpang dzongkhag’s Gakiling gewog, around 7:30pm on November 16.
“We’re working closely with our Indian counterparts (SSB), but there are no clues as of now,” the superintendent of police in Gelephu said.
The astrologer’s wife, who was injured in the incident, is in a stable condition, according to doctors of Sarpang hospital, where she is being treated. The victim’s wife had to take two stitches on the forehead, where she had been hit by a rifle butt. She did not suffer any other physical injuries.
Her husband, Dorjila, 56, was kidnapped from their neighbour’s one storied concrete house, where they had sought shelter, because they did not feel safe staying in their own hut, a few minutes walk away, after hearing about the kidnap of a taxi driver last month.
Two weeks ago, a 26-year-old girl was stabbed on the Hiley-Singy gewog farm road, which is about a kilometre from the Hiley police checkpost, not very far from where the abduction happened.
On November 16, the victim had gone to Sarpangtar, where the district administration is housed, about a kilometre by farm road, to perform a ritual. The patron had dropped him at the road point, from where he walked another five minutes to reach home.
Few minutes after reaching home, a group of about eight armed men entered the house, and pointed a gun at the victim. When his wife tried calling the village tshogpa, she was hit on the forehead with a rifle, and the phone switched off. Their 12-year-old son, studying in class three, was at home when the kidnappers struck.
There are about 10 households in the village, located about 450m from the porous India-Bhutan border, which is marked by dense forest coverage.
The November 16 abduction comes close on the heels of the kidnapping of a taxi driver on the evening of October 22, when driving to Gelephu from Sarpang. The taxi driver returned home on November 8, after his father in law paid a ransom of Nu 210,000 and is recovering from malaria at the Gelephu hospital.
Gakiling gup, Nim Dorji, said there was no clue of Dorjila’s whereabouts, even after three days. “I’ve been calling his number ever since, and it’s still switched off,” the gup said.
By Tshering Namgyal, Sarpang
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