Assam govt to order judicial probe into killing of school girl

Guwahati, Aug 26: Assam government today announced a judicial enquiry into the killing of school girl Priya Basumatary by NDFB(S) terrorists alleging her to be a police informer and her body lying unattended for more than 24 hours.

"The Chief Minister has decided to hold a judicial probe into the killing of Priya Basumatary by NDFB(S) militants. The enquiry will look into all the related aspects of the murder," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nilamani Sen Deka said in the House.

Replying on behalf of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi who also holds the Home portfolio, Deka said the government will officially write to the Gauhati High Court in the next few days. Yesterday, noisy scenes prevailed in the Assam Assembly as the opposition parties AGP, BJP, AIUDF and BPF demanded a discussion over killing of the 16-year old girl along with violence on the Assam-Nagaland border.

While the opposition AIUDF had demanded resignation of the government saying "it has no moral right", Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said the girl was "not a police informer". On August 20, five NDFB(S) terrorists were killed at Dwimuguri in Chirang district in an encounter by a joint team of Assam Police and Army.

Following this, a group of NDFB(S) militants came to the village the same evening from the adjoining dense jungles of Chirang Reserve Forest and dragged out Basumatary from her house and shot her dead in front of her parents and villagers accusing her to be informer. Police and Army could not recover the body for more than 24 hours and cited reasons that "the village is located in a very remote area and only approachable on foot" and "the local villagers were unwilling to co-operate out of fear".

PTI