One Great Escape, Part-2

One Great Escape, Part-1

It was the month of September 2003. Parag Da was working with a small construction firm and was posted at the construction site itself. They were working on a government project in Pabhoi, a place which is about 10 KM from Biswanath Chariali, in the Sonitpur district of Assam.The construction site was situated at a remote location, near to the banks of river Brahmaputra and the forest was not very far from there. It was some sort of disturbed area, as the surrounding was the hub of NDFB rebels. Cases of kidnapping and extortion were quite common there. All the employees, including the construction workers stayed together within their boundary. The work was in full swing and the workers used to work till midnight. Parag da was the only engineer who stayed at the construction site and all other senior engineers visited the site during the day time and they used to return the same day before dark.

On 12th Sept 2003, at around 11:45 PM, the workers were about to shutdown their work till the next  morning. There was a tube well within their campus and everyone used to clean themselves there. Parag Da just washed his feet and was about to go inside his room. All of a sudden 2 guys came, one was holding a big pistol and the other guy carried one AK47 kind of. They pointed the pistol towards Parag Da and asked him to come with them. All that happened in front of all everyone out there. One guy started an old Yamaha bike and Parag Da had to sit in the middle, between those two guys. They drove almost for an hour through the open fields and not through the road. Suddenly they stopped in the middle of some meadows. The guys discussed something in their Bodo language and all of a sudden one of the guys started the bike and left from there. It was totally dark out there and Parag da didn’t have any clue what was going on? His brain almost   stopped to work for the last one hour but one thing he was quite sure that he was being kidnapped by the NDFB guys and they would definitely ask for a ransom from the owner of the company he worked for, or might be from his parents.

With some hesitation and fear, he asked the guy “What’s going on? What we supposed to do out here?”

The guy replied “My colleague went to return the bike and will come back within an hour, till then we would have to wait here”

Parag Da knew that he had only one cigarette left with him and without much of a thinking, he lighted it. Fortunately Parag Da had his watch with him and it was 1 AM that moment.At around 2 AM, the other guy came and then they started to walk through those meadows. The fields were full of mud and it was quite difficult for Parag Da to walk, as he didn’t have his shoes and only had his sandals with him. They walked for another half an hour and then they stopped at a very small dhaba kind of. Parag da didn't see any house on the way and he was quite sure that they were heading towards the dense forest. The guys asked him to have food but Parag Da already had his dinner. Those guys had their food and immediately left from there, along with Parag Da. 

They walked for another 2 hours, through the muddy meadows. It was quite dark and one of the guys was holding a torch light. All of a sudden they stopped in front of a house and knocked the door. Someone opened the door and they discussed for a while.They entered inside the house and after a few minutes, one of the guys took Parag Da inside a room and asked him to sleep. They all shared the same room for the night. Parag Da was totally blank and didn’t have any idea what to do? He saw a Bidi (local cigarette), out there on the floor, at one corner of the room. Without much hesitation and without asking anyone, he simply picked up the bidi and lighted it. He enjoyed his anxiety with those strong puffs for a while and then, he had a look at his watch, it was 4:30 AM. He was so tired and was totally in a  confused state of mind, he simply lied down and closed his eyes.

Image courtesy: google images

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