Imphal, Manipur, November 14 (HBTV): The father of two children who went missing along with their mother and three other members of a family from Jiribam district in Manipur after an encounter between armed militants and the Central Reserve Police Force, has appealed for their release. The father, Laisharam Herojit, also requested the authorities to find the missing persons at the earliest.

Herojit, an Indian Reserve Battalion policeman posted in Imphal spoke in an interview with a news channel. He appealed to any person or group that may have held his family hostage to release them. They are innocent, he said.

Herojit got a call from his wife when shooting and arson broke out in Jiribam's Borobekra on Monday. The call got disconnected and when he dialed her back, he found the phone was switched off. About an hour later, while they went searching a Bengali friend of his wife told them that she saw them being taken away in a boat by armed people.

"They are all innocent. My two children cannot even speak yet," said Herojit while appealing for their release.

After a gun fight between security forces and armed militants in Jiribam Jakuradhor and Borobekra area, leaving ten armed militants dead, six people living in the area went missing, including three women and three children.

Search operations by security forces have not yet yielded any result of their whereabouts.