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Express News Service
GUWAHATI: It was a torturous 209 hours in Chinese captivity for Arunachal Pradesh boy Miram Taron.
Hands tied and blindfolded all along, the teenager was allegedly administered “electric shock” and kicked in the back by his captors – People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
He was “mentally disturbed” on Monday and could not be reached. His father, Opang Taron, narrated the boy’s nightmare.
“He is mentally disturbed after all that he had to go through. He told me that he was captured from no man’s land. Soon, he was blindfolded and taken to a camp, he thought, should be around 1 km away,” Opang said.
He said till minutes before the 17-year-old’s handover to the Indian Army in the Kibithu area of Arunachal’s Anjaw district on January 27, the boy was kept blindfolded with his hands tied.
The father said the PLA would remove the blindfold and free the hands only when the Class VIII Kendriya Vidyalaya dropout would eat his food or go out to answer nature’s call.
“One day initially, he was kicked in the back thrice. He was also given shock with a lighter-like object,” the man said quoting his son. “But he was fed well. Meat was invariably on the platter,” Opang added.
He said the boy was taken to Kibithu in a vehicle and quarantined for three days following handover.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people, including villagers, civil societies, panchayat leaders and officials from the administration, received Miram at Tuting, 6 km away from his Zido village, in Upper Siang district on Monday when the Indian Army had brought him from Kibithu. After a brief function, he was handed over to his family.
Villagers, friends and relatives kept swarming to Opang’s house ever since Miram’s arrival.
“A lot of people visited us today. We offered them local brew. We are all celebrating the occasion,” Opang added.
The Chinese soldiers had picked up the teenager on January 18 around 6 pm when he and his friend, Jhonny Yaying, ventured deep into a forest near the fuzzy India-China border to hunt wild animals. The site is around 35-40 km away from their village.
Jhonny had managed to flee. He reached Tuting, the nearest circle headquarters, the next day and informed the villagers and the authorities of the incident.
Earlier, Opang had told this newspaper, “We have a puja in mid-February where, as per a customary practice, my sisters would offer rice cakes and local brew to me and I would give them dry meat. As the meat needs to be dried up before being gifted, Miram had gone out early for the traditional hunting.”
According to some officials, the state’s tribals rely on the forests for their daily needs and as such, they cannot be prevented from going there.
In September 2020, five boys from the state’s Upper Subansiri district were taken into custody by the PLA. They were freed a week later.
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