By IANS,
New Delhi : The People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) Tuesday accused security forces of killing four young men in Assam in cold blood and branding them Maoists.
A PUDR statement quoted families of the slain men and local media reports as saying that “this was nothing but a cold-blooded murder which was later (shown) as an ‘encounter’.”
On May 9, a joint team of Assam Police, Central Reserve Police Force and Indian Army killed the four in Assam’s Saidya area, the PUDR said.
The victims were identified as Siddhartha Buragohain, Medang Gogoi alias Rajib Gogoi, Hiren Chetia alias Rajat and Kamala Buragohain. They were aged between 25 and 30 years.
The statement said: “The police found the four youth taking food, and there was no resistance from the unarmed youth.
“Subsequently all four were shot by the police from point-blank range and killed in cold blood.
“Not a single soldier was injured in this ‘encounter’ which was said to be a ‘fierce gun battle’.”
PUDR said: “This ‘encounter’ is one among several thousand such custodial killings by the Indian security forces and the Assam Police in the name of ‘counter-insurgency’ operations.”