New Delhi: A man who went missing in September 2015 in Arunachal Pradesh is believed to have been abducted by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). His disappearance has gained renewed significance after another man who was abducted by the Chinese army was recently returned after the Indian government’s intervention. According to an Arunachal Times report, the man, identified as Tapor Pullam from the Monigong area of the state’s Shi-Yomi district that borders China, had gone missing in 2015 during a hunting expedition near the border. It is common practice in various parts of the state to go on weeks-long hunting trips in forests.Pullam’s family told the newspaper that they have got in touch with Union law minister Kiren Rijiju, the state administration and the Indian Army for help after a search party from the village couldn’t find him even after two trips to the area. They have so far received no favourable response. The report said Pullam, along with a friend named Taka Yorchi, had set out on the hunting trip in the third week of August 2015 to an area near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Monigong area.Quoting a close family friend of the missing person, the news report said, “Their target was to return by the end of September. On 11 September, during the course of the hunting expedition, his partner Taka Yorchi started to feel unwell. He returned home and informed the family that Tapor Pullom had decided to continue hunting and would return home by 15 September, 2015.” Since Pullam didn’t return home even by September 17, the family sent out a search party, twice. “When the search party reached the jungle camp where he was hunting in the Monigong border pass, they found all the items of Tapor, including his 12 bore gun, intact. The camp was in proper order. Only Tapor Pullom was missing,” the family friend told the newspaper.The friend said they didn’t find any sign of accident or death at the campsite and the adjacent areas. “The search team came to the conclusion that he was caught by the Chinese PLA as the jungle where they were hunting is very near to the Chinese border. The PLA often intrudes into Arunachal’s territory in the area,” the friend added.Pullam’s family thereafter contacted the Indian Army and the local administration for help. “Unfortunately, no one really helped the family. The family has faced a lot of trouble. No one came to their rescue, which is very sad,” said the family friend.In the last seven years, Pullam’s wife had passed away. His five children are awaiting his return. “We still believe that he is alive. But we also want a conclusion and want to know exactly what happened to him. This everlasting wait for him is very painful for the entire family,” his daughter-in-law Amoni Diru Pullom told Arunachal Times.With the successful return of another villager, Miram Taron, to Arunachal after the Indian government got in touch with the Chinese government this past week, the hope for Pullam’s return has rekindled and the family has appealed to the state chief minister Pema Khandu and Rijiju, an MP from the state, to take up the matter with the Union government and the Chinese authorities to locate him.Nineteen-year-old Miram Taron was handed over at Wacha-Damai interaction point in Arunachal Pradesh on January 27, 2022. Photo: Twitter/@KirenRijijuA day after the news report was published, Tapir Gao, the BJP MP from the state who had first flagged Taron’s abduction by the PLA, said he would soon write to the Union home and defence ministers. He had already raised the matter with the junior home minister Nisith Pramanik on February 2, according to reports.The All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU) also reacted to the report, urging both the Khandu and Modi governments to “take up the matter at the earliest”. AAPSU general secretary Tobom Dai told the Arunachal Times, “Our people have lived in these places since time immemorial. But in recent years, the Chinese PLA has repeatedly intruded inside Indian territory and kidnapped our innocent tribal people. This is a worrying trend. The government should make the LAC safe and secure for the citizens.”Meanwhile, as per news reports, Miram Taron told his family that he was tortured by the PLA. On February 3, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters in New Delhi that India has taken up the matter with the Chinese side. “As regards the other details, …this issue, you would recall was handled through military channels and I would refer you to the Ministry of Defence on other elements, but from the Ministry of External Affairs, I would just like to reconfirm that we have taken up the matter with the Chinese side,” he said.