Police: ULFA(I) men admit to role in ’18 Tinsukia killings

A police official said the NIA, which is investigating the case, was informed in May that the duo has admitted to their role in the November 1 incident.

Assam Police has claimed that the two members of the banned ULFA(I) who surrendered in May this year have admitted to their role in a 2018 incident when five Bengali speaking Hindus were lined up and gunned down in a village in Tinsukia district of upper Assam.

At the entrance of Bisonimukh Kherbari village in Tinsukia, a memorial stands at the spot where five people were gunned down on November 1. (Credit: Sadiq Naqvi)

A police official said the NIA, which is investigating the case, was informed in May that the duo has admitted to their role in the November 1 incident.

“Tiger Asom and Swades Asom were part of the six member team which was involved in the incident. We conveyed it to the NIA,” said the official in Guwahati. The two operatives are currently in judicial custody after the police arrested them for their role in killing a police inspector in an encounter in May 2018.

An official of the NIA, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agency is likely to take their custody once it completes the requisite processes, claiming that the two figure among the suspects it had zeroed in on basis of their investigations so far.

According to Shiladitya Chetia, Superintendent of Police, Tinsukia, Bubul Moran alias Tiger Asom and Binanda Dahotia alias Swades Asom surrendered to the security forces on May 15 in Tinsukia district.

Police officials claim Tiger Asom and Swades Asom were part of the ULFA(I) action group which is involved in multiple attacks in the region.

Rikheswar Saikia, an Assam Police official who is investigating officer of the May 2018 incident where Bhaskar Kalita, a young inspector of the Assam Police was killed in an encounter with ULFA(I) militants, said the duo admitted to their role in the murder of Bhaskar Kalita and the November 1 killings. “They were arrested on May 20 for their role in Kalita’s killing,” Saikia said.

Between the May encounter with the Assam Police and the November killings the group is also reported to be involved in another encounter with the security forces in Jagun where one person suspected to be a member of the ULFA(I) was killed.

“We are trying to apprehend others members of the group,” Chetia said.

On November 1, as the sun set, five to six armed men in fatigues entered the Bisonimukh Kherbari village, next to the Bhupen Hazarika Setu, the longest bridge in the country over Lohit, a major tributary of the Brahmaputra river.

They lined up six villagers at the small iron bridge at the entrance of the village and fired at them, leaving five dead as one miraculously escaped as he fell in the nullah.

The incident happened at a time when Assam was roiled in protests over the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which proposes to fast track citizenship to six non-Muslim communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.