The abduction and the subsequent demand for a hefty ransom for the safe release of German national Heinrich Wolfgang has thrown open a number of uncomfortable questions that are now staring the people in the face. Can the abduction be attributed to the inertia of the law ad order enforcing machinery or does it reflect a situation where armed persons are roaming around freely to pick on hapless civilians and make ransom a thriving and lucrative industry?
That the abduction has not gone down well with the people of Manipur is best exemplified by the number of appeals and condemnations that has poured in from numerous organizations. The Manipur People's liberation Front, the umbrella organization of the UNLF, RPF and PREPAK too have come forward to appeal to the persons behind the abduction to free the abducted German national and judging by the tone adopted by numerous civil societies, we are sure the people of Manipur are opposed to any form of abduction for ransom.
The abduction of Mr. Wolfgang is all that more disturbing because he is a foreigner and he came to Manipur not for mercenary gains but to over see the numerous projects funded by the organizations to which he belongs. Whatever the case, we absolutely see no justification behind the abduction and re-united with his family members the better it would be.
Remember Manipur is through a critical phase and any misadventure in the eyes of the international community will not stand the people of this State in good stead. Of course we may also argue that the action of a few armed persons cannot be attributed to the whole of the State but the message such incidents will ring out to the outside world cannot be anything but negative.
We really do not know when abducting for ransom started catching and imagination of some armed groups but started catching the imagination of some armed groups but suffice it to say such practices cannot yield positive results in the long run. Though there is no official record of ransom being paid to secure the release of abducted persons in Manipur, whispers can be heard along the corridors of the administrative huge amount of money changing hands to secure the release of quite a few high profile personalities in the State who were abducted and then released without any harm and this we feel is a cause for concern.
Hijacking, abducting, holding hostages to strike a deal with the Government and to extract their pound of flesh are all examples of terror tactics that we have seen around the world and surely we do not want to see such dangerous trends catching tempo in Manipur which is home to a number of communities.
So far no organisations have come forward to formally claim responsibility for the abduction of the German national but nevertheless it is disturbing that some armed organizations have come under the impression that they can earn huge revenue through abduction and kidnapping. At the moment we can only hope and pray that Mr. Wolfgang is released without much ado and re-united with his family members.
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