Word: ransoms
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...Trouble in Bihar In the article "State of Fear" [June 30], you described the dire situation in the Indian state of Bihar. Thank you for shedding light on poverty and crime. The sordid fact that kidnapping for ransom is Bihar's biggest industry is a blemish on India. You reported that "even politicians may be cashing in." Although some local politicians may run kidnap syndicates, as one assembly member charged, the sorry state of affairs in Bihar is not solely the work of a few politicians; it is the result of the apathy of the Bihari people. They must rise...
...tribal militia to protect civilians, they are not allowed to operate outside Bunia. Rebels Regroup PERU Hostages were released unharmed after guerrillas from the Shining Path rebel group grabbed 71 workers laying a gas pipeline in a remote jungle area southeast of Lima. The hostages said that a ransom had been paid, which local press reports put between $200,000 and $900,000. However the government and company officials denied giving the rebels any money. The kidnapping raised fears that the rebels are regrouping after a decade-long lull. Temper Fidel CUBA Fidel Castro and his brother Ra?l led hundreds...
...strangest thing about being kidnapped, says Mohammed Salahuddin, was how familiar?and even inevitable?it seemed. The 53-year-old political activist had already negotiated a $2,000 ransom for his brother Badruddin in December 1998, and a few years before that he had secured his first cousin's release from another gang. So Salahuddin knew exactly what was happening when 10 armed men surrounded his Jeep on March 25 as he drove to a party meeting in a remote corner of India's northeastern Bihar state. Holding him at gunpoint, they yelled: "Move and we'll shoot!" Salahuddin recalls...
...marched him across rivers and through forests, until they reached a camp hidden in a narrow gorge on the Nepalese border, hours from the nearest road. They held him there for a week, telling him they wanted a ransom of 3 million rupees ($64,000). But as the days dragged on and the police dragnet tightened, the kidnappers became nervous and dropped their price. Eventually, for the promise of $1,700, half of it as a loan, Salahuddin's abductors left him at an isolated village and fled. "I never paid," he says. "They might come back for their money...
...Kidnapping for ransom is Bihar's biggest and, these days, only industry. Between 1992 and 2001, the last year for which figures are available, local police recorded 24,338 cases of kidnapping in the state, an average of more than six a day. Officers admit the real figure may be 10 times higher than that: kidnappers typically threaten to return if the victims go to the authorities. Police say Bihar has more than 100 kidnap gangs, and they don't prey solely on the rich or famous. In Salahuddin's district of Champaran, the center of Bihar's bandit country...