By TCN News,
Imphal: In another brazen show of cruelty and misuse of power, Assam Rifles jawans abducted unarmed Fazeruddin (45) from his home in Imphal in front of his family and later murdered and claimed to have killed him in an encounter. The incident that took place in January this year has once again horrified locals who have seen various such cases in the past.
During last few years a number of cases have been reported in which innocent civilians were killed in fake encounters by security forces. Fazeruddin of Manipur is one of them. He was murdered after picking up from home in dark night and next day was declared a criminal killed in an encounter with security forces.
Forty-five-year-old Fazeruddin owned a shop selling second hand clothes in Chekon area in Manipur’s capital city of Imphal. He was living with his wife Memcha and four children. On 21st January 2010 around 8pm, they were about to go to sleep when they heard some people knocking the door. Before they could reach the door to enquire, it was broken and a group of armed security personnel wearing camouflage uniforms entered the house. They blindfolded the couple and gagged Memcha’s mouth with a piece of cloth to stop her from shouting. They dragged Fazeruddin out of the house and took him with them, but before leaving the house they broke a cupboard and took away Rs.25000, a pair of gold earrings worth Rs. 40,000 and a mobile handset.
But the real drama started around 11pm on the same night when the same security personnel came back to Fazeruddin’s house and started to dismantle a wall. His wife with the children ran to a neighboring house which she says was already locked from outside by the security personnel to keep the neighbours in. She heard several gunshots and after some time the troops left. Next morning when she came home, she found dried blood in her courtyard near the gate which terrified her.
After collecting all courage, she and her sister visited the Assam Rifles (AR) camp at Kwakta to ask for her husband’s release. The officers denied arrest of Fazeruddin. They took away her mobile phone and began making calls to some recent incoming numbers. They, however, gave back the mobile phone to the women and then they left.
Smelling something fishy, Memcha approached village head Ms. Pishak to intervene but soon after a call from local police station surprised everyone: Fazeruddin was shot dead in an encounter with troops from the 33 Assam Rifles in Kwakta Khuman area and security persons seized arms and ammunition from him, the local police informed Memcha.
Fazeruddin’s body which was handed over to the family was riddled with 15 bullet wounds and dressed in combat dress. The dress was completely free of bullet holes, which was a proof that Fazeruddin was put into the combat dress after he was killed.
Though state Chief Minister Mr. Okram Ibobi has assured the family to give Rs.1,00,000 as compensation and also offered job to one of the relatives, he did not give any indication to order a probe into the encounter.