At least 15 persons, including 13 Hindi-speaking people, were killed and several others injured when suspected militants of the Ranjan Daimary faction of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) went on a killing spree in four places in northern Assam on Monday. The victims included two women.
Inspector General of Police (Northern Range) S.N. Singh told The Hindu that around 4.20 p.m., militants waylaid a passenger bus going from Tezpur to Sijusa in Arunachal Pradesh, identified the Hindi-speaking passengers, and asked them to get down. Then they asked the bus to leave and gunned down the Hindi-speaking passengers on the spot.
The eight victims are believed to be employees in different government departments in Arunachal Pradesh.
In the second incident, a group of militants gunned down five persons including a woman near Belsiri railway station near Dhekiajuli of the district.
In the third incident, militants gunned down one person near Kekerukuchi in Baksa district and injured two others. In the fourth incident, another group of militants gunned down a woman near Hugrajuli in Sonitpur district.
Bombs recovered
Police also recovered two bombs from a Guwahati-bound passenger bus at Amingaon on the outskirt of the city.
The brutal killing of innocent civilians belonging to Hindi and Assamese speaking communities came hours after a suspected cadre of the outfit was killed in an encounter during a joint operation by Army and police earlier in the morning in Sonitpur district, and a week after the outfit threatened to kill 20 or more “Indian” civilian or security personnel people against every Bodo killed by the security forces in “fake encounter”.
