10 Bihar migrants among 16 killed by ULFA

Those killed in the Naharkatiya incident included a small-time businessman, Radheshyam Agarwal, besides the boy who was in the crowd that had gathered after Agarwal protested when the rebels demanded money from him at gunpoint.

In the second incident at No 4 Kakojan village under Doomdooma police station, 11 persons were killed on the spot and three seriously injured. The incident occurred around 6.30 pm, the sources added. This is the highest number of people killed by ULFA in one incident in Upper Assam in the past one decade.

The dead have been identified as Keshab Prasad Kanu, Paresh Kanu, Shankar Kanu, Benoy Kanu, Parsuram Prasad, Dilip Singh, Manoj Singh, Sheikh Hazrat, Sheikh Mustaque, Subhash Gupta and his son, Raju Gupta. While 10 of the victims were of Bihari origin and have been running petty business activities in the locality, situated about 14 km from Doomdooma police station, Subhash Gupta was a primary school teacher, said sources.

Police officials in Tinsukia, quoting eyewitness accounts, said six or seven boys arrived at the local bazaar on motorcycles around 6.30 pm yesterday and began looking for Krishna Prasad Kanu, who runs a small retail grocery stall. While two of the boys went looking for Krishna Prasad, the others, who were wielding sophisticated weapons, rounded up several men and lined them in the centre of the small bazaar.

Soon Krishna Prasad Kanu was found and dragged to the place. Then the boys sprayed bullets on them from automatic weapons, killing 11 on the spot. The boys left after announcing that there would be more killings even as people ran for their lives.

The police station at Doomdooma was informed only about four hours later, with one of the residents who had fled across the paddy fields managing to reach a telephone booth about 5 km away from the scene of the massacre.While police personnel from Doomdooma reached the village after 11 pm, senior police officials from the district headquarters could make it to the spot only after midnight, it was gathered.

A day earlier, the police had killed a hardcore ULFA cadre, Manoj Barua alias Jyotish Barua, a self-styled lieutenant of the rebel group’s 28th battalion, in an encounter in Sukanjuri village close to the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border under Naharkatiya police station.

The police officials, who were yet to ascertain the motive behind the Doomdooma massacre, did not rule out the possibility of the ULFA rebels carrying out the massacre to avenge the killing of Manoj Barua.