North Lakhimpur: A group of construction workers from Lakhimpur district in Assam have been held captive and allegedly tortured by their employer in a remote area of Arunachal Pradesh.
According to police, the workers, who were lured to the state with the promise of good wages, have been forced to work long hours in harsh conditions. They have also been beaten and denied food and water.
The workers, who have been identified as Mizanur Rahman, Mayezuddin, Md. Akramul, Azharul Islam, Ashraf Ali, Md. Iyazuddin, Atiqul Islam, and Abdul Jaleel, are all from the Borchola-Mohghuli-Pandhowa Gaon Panchayat of Nowboicha area in North Assam’s Lakhimpur district, said a police official.
They were brought to Arunachal Pradesh by person identified as Abdul Bashir. Bashir had promised them jobs in a road construction project in the Koroliang area of Kamle district.
However, upon arrival, the workers were taken to a remote location and forced to work on a different project.
The workers managed to send SOS videos to their relatives in Assam, who then alerted the police.
They said that the remoteness of the work area made them to return home. But their employer contractor Tak San did not allow them to return. It
It is learnt that the contractor had paid Rs. 55,000 to the traffickers who brought the the workers from Lakhimpur for road construction works at Koroliang.
The workers in a video sent to family members said that the contractor held them captive and forced them to work unless his payment of Rs 55,000 was not refunded.
The workers allege that they were forced to work 12-hour days, 7 days a week. They were also denied food and water, and were beaten up.
This is not the first time that construction workers from Assam have been trafficked to Arunachal Pradesh and forced to work in harsh conditions.
In a similar incident last year, a group of 19 construction workers from Assam’s Dhubri and Bongaingaon districts, trafficked to Huri, near Indo-China border in Kurung Kumey district of Arunachal Pradesh. Ten of the workers died while trying to escape.