By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Guwahati: As many as seven civilians were killed by suspected militants of outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) Sangbijit faction during the last two days in three districts of lower Assam.
Those killed persons also include residents of Bihar. On Saturday, one Hindi speaking barber from Bihar was gunned down at Udalguri while another belonging from minority community was killed at Panbari under Bijni Police Station in Chirang district in lower Assam. Four others also sustained injuries as the militants launched fire aiming at the villagers.
Earlier, the NDFB militants killed five Hindi speaking people in Kokrajhar on Friday night on the National Highway-31 in Kokrajhar district. The militants stopped four night buses coming from different parts of North Bengal, dragged out 13 passengers, lined them up and opened indiscriminate fire, according to police.
The barber has been identified as Bikram Singh (55), a native of Bihar, police said while the other one is Iman Ali in Chirang district.
The deceased hailing from Bihar are Papu Kumar Singh (25), Shamsher Mantri (20) and brothers Ahot Bihari (20) and Raj Bihari (19) who were killed on Friday.
The injured, also from Bihar and admitted to Bongaingaon Civil Hospital, are Amol Gupta, Ramanand Ojah and Babulal Karmakar.
Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has asked the new state DGP Khagen Sharma to take strict action against the militants. Condemning the incident as barbarous the CM has asked the police to intensify operations to nab culprits.
All the political parties and leaders have condemned the incident demanded justice for the victims. “This is non-sense. How can one solve problems like this? The militants cannot just keep on killing innocent people. If sometimes they would attack the Hindi speaking people then they would kill the Muslims. We strongly condemn it as inhuman,” said Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) chief Hagrama Mohilary.
On the other hand, the Bihar government has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each and state funeral at home for the four from the state. Bihar Principal Secretary, Home, Amir Subhani said that on the instruction of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar the state government will pay Rs 2 lakh each to families of the victims.
Subhani also said on the initiative of the Bihar government, the Assam government too announced Rs 6 lakh compensation to them – Rs 3 lakh from its fund and an equal amount from central fund.