In what has been called revenge killing, the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland on Monday massacred at least 15 people, mostly Hindi and Bengali speaking, in four separate attacks in Northern Assam’s Sonitpur district.
The incident came close on the heels of killing of a hardcore NDFB rebel in an encounter by security forces in the same district on Monday morning.
The outfit in a categorical threat had warned to retaliate the killing of every NDFB militant by security forces by killing 20 civilians.
Security forces had killed one NDFB cadre Maheswar Basumatary in Batasipur area of Sonitpur district earlier on Monday and the killing spree by the outfit is being seen as a move to avenge it.
In the first incident near Arunachal Pradesh border, at least seven passengers of an Arunachal Pradesh-bound bus were gunned down by NDFB militants at Doimara, under Itakhola police outpost, at about 4.45 pm. The bus was going from Tezpur to Seijosa, in Arunachal’s East Kameng district.
Security sources said that heavily armed NDFB rebels opened fire on the bus, forcing the driver to bring it to a halt.
The militants then separated the Hindi-speaking, Arunachal government employees in the bus and herded them few metres away from the bus and shot them down. Seven bodies were recovered from the spot, the police said.
The second incident took place near Batashipur railway station in the same district. Six heavily armed NDFB rebels came on a motorcycle and opened indiscriminate fire on a passenger bus killing five people, including a woman, on the spot.
In a similar offensive, NDFB rebels shot at two Assamese people who were said to have succumbed to the bullet injuries while on way to hospital.
The fourth incident was reported from Tamulpur in Bakhsa district where heavily armed NDFB militant entered the house of Mohan Das and gunned down two male members of the family and wounded three others. Security sources referring the eyewitness accounts of the first incident said that victims were identified before being gunned down by NDFB rebels.
Meanwhile, two powerful bombs were recovered from a Guwahati-bound bus at Amingaon area, on the outskirts of Guwahati.
The killing spree is being seen as execution of a warning by the NDFB on November one that the outfit will kill 20 “Indian” civilians and security forces to avenge death of any innocent Bodo in “fake encounters”.
In an emailed statement to the media, NDFB ‘deputy chief’ self-styled lieutenant B. Jwngkhang had said, “From today onwards, if any innocent Bodo/NDFB cadres is killed in the name of fake encounters, then the Boroland Army, NDFB, will take action against any Indian.”
The NDFB offensive has also caught the security force off guard as they underestimated the threat of NDFB rebels having domination in Northern Assam’s Sonitpur district where the mayhem took place.