PATNA, 27 December 2002 — Police in the north Indian state of Bihar yesterday rescued a press photographer kidnapped by an unidentified gang Thursday night.
Sources at the police headquarters here said 45-year-old Ashok Karn, a photographer with the Hindustan Times newspaper, was rescued from a village in the Nalanda district. They said a suspect had been arrested and was being interrogated to find out the motive for the kidnapping.
Earlier yesterday, hundreds of journalists had taken out a protest march in Patna and threatened to launch a relay hunger strike from today to denounce the Bihar government’s failure to locate Karn.
The journalists had marched from Budha Marg to Chief Minister Rabri Devi’s official residence and met her as well as ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Laloo Prasad Yadav. It was the biggest protest ever by journalists here.
They dispersed after the two leaders told them that the authorities were doing all they could to trace the photographer. Yadav told them that he had engaged his own men to trace Karn.
Ranchi-based Karn was on an assignment in Bela village, about 135 km from Patna when he was taken hostage by a 10-member gang of armed miscreants Thursday night, according to the police.
His wife Madhu, who was also taken away with him, was later released.
The abduction of Karn was the latest incident in a series of kidnappings for ransom in Bihar. But it was the first time that a journalist of national caliber was kidnapped.
