Bodies of 5 SSB found

Mangaldoi, May 29 (UNI) The police today recovered decomposed bodies of five SSB personnel near Bhirabkunda who were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen on May 21.

Police said securitymen from Udalguri police station spotted the bodies at Belsor nala near Bhairbankunda in Asom-Bhutan border in Northern bank.

All of them were shot dead from a close range. The SSB have been deployed in the Asom-Bhutan borer following the movement of insurgents using the open boundary.

All the five, including a local trader, were kidnapped by a group of 30 youths, armed to the teeth, from the Dansiri camp near Udalguri. Later police recovered the body of the trader but all the five remained untraced for the past eight days.

The SSB jawans were P Sabisingh, H Lakshap Singh, Thangkolian Viphai and S Amogha Sangtham and the cook Krishna Bahadur Chetri belonging to the B Company of the 17 battalion of the SSB.

The real motive behind the killing was not yet known and although initially police suspected it to be the handiwork of NDFB but the militant group had denied any involvement.

The police also informed that slained Bubul Kalita was involved in immoral activities like girl trafficking and bootlegging and the NDFB had only warned him to stop the previous day.

But the NDFB consistently denied the incident, which has shocked the state as for the first time any security organization engaged in the international boundary protection was attacked so severely by militants groups of Asom.

UNI XC-MT KK RD 2107