Shillong, Jan 21: The kidnapped oil company employees appealed to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal to step up the efforts to release them from their abductors in a video message from an undisclosed location.

The two abducted persons radio operator Ram Kumar (35) and drilling superintendent Pranab Kumar Gogoi (51) are being held captive by the ULFA-Independent and NSCN for nearly a month now.

In the two videos released by the ULFA-Independent, the two abducted oil employees are being seen pleading their respective State Governments for making arrangements for their safe return home.

Similarly, three years back, ULFA-I has release video of Kuldeep Moran, who was abducted by the rebel outfit. Kuldeep is a resident of Tinsukia district was abducted by the ULFA-I from Changlang district and taken to an undisclosed location.

After many days, he was released by the insurgent group. It might be mentioned that the rebel outfit had taken lakhs of rupees for his release.

On December 21, armed militants kidnapped employees of the private company from the drilling site belonging to Oil India Limited (OIL). While Gogoi worked as a drilling supervisor, Kumar worked as a radio operator for Quippo which is the drilling operator for Oil India wells in Innao area of Changlang district.

It has been one month since we were kidnapped by ULFA(I) and NSCN (IM) which are in conflict with our company. I appeal to the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to talk to Assam Chief Minister to secure my release from my captors,” said Ram Kumar in the video message. Gogoi made a similar appeal to the Assam Chief Minister.

Sources said the captors have placed a ransom amount of Rs. 20 crores on each of the kidnapped employees.

Meanwhile, a company official from Quippo said that appeals to step up their rescue operations have been made to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

It might be mentioned that such kind of kidnapping for money had been reported from the Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh in a similar fashion.

Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh shares a boundary with Myanmar and most of the insurgents’ groups of Northeast have taken refuge in some undisclosed location of the international border.