Tags:
Journalism of Courage
GUWAHATI, NOV 1: In the wake of three successive incidents in which ULFA militants targeted Hindi-speaking people in Nalbari, Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts of Assam, the state government today shunted out its senior most IPS officer, P.V. Sumant, from the post of Director General of Police and appointed Hare Krishna Deka in his place.
Deka, who was functioning as the Additional DGP looking after the Special Branch, took charge today. Sumant has been shifted to the post of chairman and managing director of the the Assam Police Housing Corporation.
As many as 26 people had died in the three massacres. Last night, suspected Bodo rebels gunned down five policemen in another incident in Dhubri district.
The reshuffle at the top in the Assam police department came just one day after Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta left the state capital en route to the US on an unspecified trip. Mahanta reportedly cleared the transfer of the DGP before he left Guwahati yesterday.
For its part, the police have claimed a major breakthrough in the Nalbari massacre with the arrest of Nripen Das, who allegedly hired the vehicle used by the killers. Das had been absconding since the day of the killings. He was arrested following the statement of the driver of the car. The police have reportedly seized the vehicle, still carrying blood stains, apart from six live AK-47 cartridges.
Das had been earlier arrested a few years ago under TADA, and is stated to have close links with the ULFA.
Meanwhile, A 12-hour bandh called by the Asom Yuva Parishad (AYP), the youth wing of the ruling Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), to protest against the killing of nine persons at Nalbari last Friday disrupted normal life in the state today.
Educational institutions, banks and business establishments remained closed and very few vehicles were seen on the roads. The attendance in government offices was thin despite a stern warning by the government. City buses and long-distance buses too were off the roads, though trains and flights to and from Guwahati were not suspended.
