Militants Release WWF Volunteers in Assam

Guwahati, Feb 18 : Three volunteers of environmental group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), who had been kidnapped by militants in Assam Feb 6, were released from captivity Thursday, police said.

A police spokesperson said the three male WWF volunteers were released Thursday morning by memebrs of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) near Balajan, close to the district headquarters of Kokrajhar, about 220 km west of here.

'The three of them were tired, but remained physically unharmed,' a police official said.

'We shall be able to get details from them only by Friday when we get a debriefing from the released hostages.'

The three men, along with three women volunteers, all Indians, were taken hostage by about 20 masked rebels Feb 6 from Manas National Park while they were counting tigers and elephants in the reserve, bordering Bhutan. The women were released Feb 9.

The reserve lies 200 km west of Assam's main city of Guwahati and borders the foothills of Bhutan. The rebels have attacked and sometimes killed wildlife officials in the past in the region.