Bodies of 5 SSB jawans found

Mangaldoi, Asom May 29 (UNI) Police today recovered the decomposed bodies of five Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel who were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen on May 21, from near Bhirabkunda on the Asom-Bhutan border.

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

All of them had been shot from a close range. The SSB have been deployed in the Asom-Bhutan border following the movement of insurgents across the open border.

The five SSB personnel and a local trader were kidnapped by a group of 30 armed youths from the Dansiri camp near Udalguri. Later police recovered the body of the trader, but 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 motive behind the killing was not yet known. Although initially police suspected it to be the handiwork of NDFB, the militant group had denied any involvement in the incident.

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

The NDFB has consistently denied being involved in the incident and said that they were shocked over the fact that for the first time any security organisation engaged in the protection of the international boundary was attacked so severely by militants groups of Asom.

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