GUWAHATI: The deadlock over the hostage crisis in Assam continued for the 22nd day Monday with the govt failing to make any breakthrough as to the whereabouts of eight persons kidnapped by the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).
The banned secessionist outfit kidnapped the eight, including senior ONGC and Assam govt officials, on July 1 and set a deadline for 1800 hours 1st on Friday for the release of two of the front activists and sympathizers.
A Soviet mining expert, Servei Grischenko, who was also kidnapped, was killed, ULFA said, while trying to escape.
An official spokesman told newsmen here that all efforts were on to trace the rest of the hostages and to contact ULFA.
The spokesman said a copy of the post mortem report on the headless body, found in the Buridhing on Thursday, was handed over to Soviet consul Victor Koulikov before he had left for Calcutta.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 26, 1991
