Rebels gun down Cong leaders as DGPs review situation

Guwahati, Jun 4 (UNI) Two top Congress leaders of Asom were gunned down by suspected tribal militants in North Cachar (NC) Hills district today even as the DGPs of four North East states met here to review the inter-state counter insurgency operation.

Chief Executive Member(CEM) of NC Hills Autonomous District Council(NCHADC) Purnendu Langthasa and another Executive Member(EM) Nindu Langthasa were killed by suspected rebels of the DHD (Jewel Garlosa faction).

Official sources said the militants invited the CEM, and the EM for ''discussion'' at Longei Basti near Umrangso police station at 1340 hrs and shot them dead.

Purnendu Langthasa is the eldest son of former Asom cabinet minister and senior most Congress MLA Gobinda Chandra Langthasa, whose second son was also killed by militants two years back.

The other deceased is Nindu Langthasa, NCHADC EM in-charge of PHE, transport and education. Two of their PSOs were also critically injured in the firing.

Both had gone to make a deal with the underground Garlosa faction of the DHD militants as the district Council is going to polls on June 12.

Significantly, the elder brother of DHD head Jewel Garlosa is contesting the same election as a Congress candidate and would have been a potential rival to Mr Langthasa for the top job of the district council.

State Governor Lt Gen Ajai Singh summoned Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi this evening and demanded to know how the CEM could be shot so easily by the militants, a Raj Bhawan source informed. He also condemned the incident and would be flying to the spot tomorrow morning.

Mr Gogoi later reviewed the situation in the NC Hills and also condemned the incident. This is the biggest political killing at the hand of militants since the death of former Asom minister Nagen Sharma in 2000.

The Dilip Nunisa faction of the DHD, which favours the ceasefire, has condemned the incident.

The entire district headquarter town of Haflong was shut down after the incident, while the police have launched a major combing operation to track the militants.

Meanwhile, the Director Generals of Police(DGP) of Asom, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh and GOC of the four Corps held a closed door meeting at the DGP headquarter here.

According to top home department source, the meeting was to decide the next phase of strategy against the militant outfits in the region, especially the ULFA, in the wake of intensified militant strikes across Asom.

The Inspector Generals of Police (law and order and intelligence) of the four states were also present.

The particulars of the meeting were not disclosed to the media.

Asom DGP R N Mathur said, ''We can not disclose the particulars. It was a departmental meeting.'' However, broad hint was dropped of regional cooperation, as ULFA was known to use other state's territory for geographical advantage.

Reports had suggested that the army would launch a massive anti-insurgency operation in the state after the recent spurt in violence.

UNI