5-year-old son of Ram Kumar, abducted by ULFA (I), battling cancer, family begs for return

Tinsukia: Ram Kumar’s family has again appealed to the ULFA (I) supremo Paresh Baruah to release him.

“This is my alone 5-year-old grandson who is fighting blood cancer for the past 11 months at AIIMS, Patna. There is no one else to help. Ram Kumar somehow managed a loan of lakhs of rupees for his treatment. If something happens to him, the family could be pushed to the brink of suicide,” said a helpless Ram Kumar Dibakar, the father-in-law of abducted Ram Kumar, in an interview with a news channel.

The heart-wrenching video came a day after ULFA (I) issued a statement stating that the abducted employee of Quippo Oil and Gas Infrastructure, Pranab Kumar Gogoi and Ram Kumar, would be executed in the coming week after talks with the company failed.

Pranab Kumar Gogoi, a resident of Sivasagar district of Assam, working as a drilling superintendent with Quippo, and Ram Kumar, a resident of Khagaria district in Bihar, working as a radio operator, were kidnapped from Quippo rig at Changlang district in Arunachal Pradesh on December 21.

Dibakar said ransom talks with the company director seem to have failed. They have issued a date for the execution. “We have prayed several times to the central, Bihar, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh government to secure the release of my son-in-law, but there is no one to hear us, a poor family,” he added.

“We once again pray to Central, Bihar, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh government to secure the release of my son-in-law. The time is very less. ULFA has set a deadline of February 22. If their demands aren’t met, they will kill Ram Kumar,” Dibakar said in his appeal, adding, “To ULFA’s head Paresh Baruah Ji, I beg with folded hands to give my son-in-law “jeevandan” (another life).”