Top CRPF official claims fake encounter in Assam, says militants were already in custody

Rai called for striking balance between individual human rights and societal interests.

A top official in the CRPF has claimed that two suspected militants of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) were not killed in an encounter, but were in custody when security forces shot them dead, said reports.

Central Reserve Police Force Inspector General Rajnish Rai, in a report sent to Assam Chief Secretary V. K. Pipersenia, has raised serious questions about the manner in which security forces operated in this particular case.

The forces had claimed that two NDFB(s) terrorists were killed and a large cache of arms and ammunition was seized during an encounter at Assam's Chirang district.

Rai, who is in-charge of the anti-insurgency force in Assam and other parts of the Northeast, refutes this and states that the two men were picked from another village much earlier. The report also says that only a Chinese-made grenade was seized from them while the rest of the weapons were planted, an NDTV report claimed.

Rai calls for striking balance between individual human rights and societal interests, terming it as key in combating insurgency.

He says that it is immaterial that what background detained individuals are from, asserting that they must be sujected to 'due process of law'.

The report states that security forces committed 'pre-planned murders' and presented it as some 'brave act of professional achievement'. Rai further called it 'cruelest forms of human rights abuse'.

The militants have been identified as Lukus Narzary and David Islary.

The report has also been sent to chiefs of the CRPF, Sashastra Seema Bal and the state police.

OneIndia News