Siliguri: Student ‘abducted’ from 10 Mile area, family blocks highway in protest

Siliguri: Tension gripped the Sevoke Police Outpost area over the alleged abduction of a teenager from the 10 Mile forest village, with his family staging a highway blockade demanding his immediate rescue. Even after 48 hours of the incident, no trace of the boy has been found.

The missing teenager has been identified as Ishan Gurung, a class VII student of Krishna Maya Memorial Nepali High School in Siliguri. According to eyewitnesses, on Saturday evening Ishan and some of his friends was fishing near Sevoke Bridge when a group of miscreants arrived in a four-wheeler, engaged the boy in conversation and then forcibly dragged him inside before speeding away. The vehicle turned towards Siliguri. Sobir Tamang, an eyewitness to the incident, stated: “The miscreants came in a four-wheeler van and dragged the boy inside. I tried to stop the vehicle but failed.”

Following the incident, the family lodged a written complaint at the Sevoke Police Outpost. However, with no breakthrough in the case after two days, frustration among the family and locals boiled over on Monday. They staged a protest in front of the police station and later blocked National Highway 31, disrupting traffic movement between Bengal, Sikkim and the Dooars region for several hours.

Vehicles on both sides of the highway came to a standstill, causing immense hardship to commuters and transporters. The protesters accused the police of inaction and demanded that the authorities intensify efforts to rescue the boy at the earliest. After a few hours, with the intervention of the police, the blockade was removed at around 1 pm.

Police have started an investigation into the incident and CCTV footage is being examined to track the kidnappers’ movements. Mpost