Parents of Kidnapped WWF Volunteer in Shock

Shillong, Feb 9 : Parents of a World Wildlife Fund-India volunteer, who along with five other co-workers were kidnapped by armed militants in Assam on Sunday, are in a state of shock and have appealed for their daughter’s release.

Pallabi Chakraborty, 25, along with her colleagues Torali Goswami, Shrabana Goswami, Syed Naushad Zaman, Pranjal Saikia and Gautom Kishore Sharma were abducted by suspected militants at Ultapani forest range under Manas National Park, near the Indo-Bhutan border, in western Assam’s Kokrajhar district where they were on a field work.

Five of them are residents of Assam and the other is from Shillong. Based in Shillong, Pallabi’s father Gopal Chakraborty, who is a tailor, wondered why the six volunteers were abducted and made a humble appeal for their release.

Pallabi is passionate about preserving environment. She has no political leaning. Her commitment is only towards conservation. I humbly appeal to the abductors to release her and the co-workers, Chakraborty told reporters here.

The police had not yet contacted the family, he said. I came to know of the abduction from a friend who watched the news in TV last evening. WWF officials are in touch.

Pallabi, who had a very good academic record, bagging the first class fifth rank in M.Sc. Botany from North Eastern Hills University after achieving first class second rank in degree courses, joined the WWF project only a few months back.

She had gone to the Manas National Park on January 18 and was scheduled to leave for the Sunderbans after completion of the project in about a months’ time.