4 charged with abduction

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33520, 29 April 1974, Page 14

4 charged with abduction

< N.Z P A -Reuter—Copyright' BANGKOK, April 28. Ihe police have arrested four bandits and charged them with abducting two foreign women missionaries in southern Thailand, according to reports in local newspapers.

The two missionaries — Miss Margaret .Horgan, aged 35, from Britain, and .Miss Minka Hanskamp, aged 30. from New Zealand — were kidnapped last Tuesday by four armed bandits from a village in the Yarang district of Pattani Province, 875 miles south of Bangkok.

The newspapers, quoting the provincial police, said that the four men had admitted that the missionaries — members on the Overseas Missionary Fellowship — were kidnapped toj treat their men wounded in clashes with Thai Government authorities.

However, provincial police headquarters in Bangkok said no report of the arrest had been received.

The police in Pattani could not be contacted to confirm the arrest of the bandits.

The newspapers quoted the police as saying that three of the bandits were arrested yesterday in Pattani and the other iii the neighbouring province of Yala. They were identified as Hayi Cheng Ping, Mama Dehtae, Hayi Rateh Ravee and Koke Payoh, according to the report.

The two missionaries have been working in Thailand for

? ■ some years for the fellow--1 ship, a Protestant group with iI headquarters in Singapore. -I According to officials at the British Embassy, Miss Mor--|gan has relatives in North i Rhondda, Wales, A missioni ary spokesman said Mi-s • Hanskamp has a sister in I Wellington and a brother in : Auckland.