Altogether 14 persons from upper Assam’s Sivasagar and Charaideo districts have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping of the three ONGC employees in the early hours of Wednesday.

The trio — M.M. Gogoi (Sivasagar district), Ritil Saikia (Golaghat district) and Alokesh Saikia (Jorhat district) — were abducted by suspected Ulfa(I) cadres from the company’s rig site at Lakwa in Sivasagar district by a group of about five armed cadres belonging the proscribed outfit.

Sivasagar SP Amitava Sinha said the 14 persons were arrested from multiple locations in Sivasagar and Charaideo districts for their alleged links with the abduction carried out by the proscribed outfit.

“They helped the Ulfa(I).… They are overground workers of the outfit. We will be able to nab the local aides. The trio may have been taken to Mon (Nagaland). Both districts are working in tandem to resolve the case,” Sinha said.

The trio were whisked away in an ambulance stationed at the rig site towards the Nagaland border. The vehicle was found abandoned near the Nimonagarh jungle “close” to the Assam-Nagaland border. Mon district borders Sivasagar and Charaideo districts.

On Thursday, the family members held a press conference appealing to the abductors to release the trio unharmed and as soon as possible.

G.P. Singh, special DGP (law and order), is monitoring the probe as well as search operations.

Ulfa (I ) has not yet reacted to the development even though the police is sure about the outfit’s involvement in the case.

ONGC officials said they have not received any call or demand from any quarter. “Till now we don’t know who is behind the kidnapping,” one of them said.

Sources said the possibility of the outfit taking the trio to Myanmar cannot be ruled out. Mon district borders Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar.