GUWAHATI: Three ministers and top police officials, including the DGP, rushed to the spot following the massacre of five persons by unidentified armed assailants in Kherbari in Tinsukia district of Assam on Thursday night.
Senior Cabinet ministers Parimal Suklabaidya and Keshav Mahanta, along with the minister of state Topon Gogoi, rushed to the spot on instructions of the chief minister.
Keshab Mahanta while taking to media persons at Dhola incident site said, “We are here on the instructions of the chief minister. It is our appeal to all people to maintain peace and harmony.”
“We will look into the details and also speak to the victims families,” Suklabaidya said.
Gogoi said the police have been given strict instruction to nab the culprits at the earliest.
He said, “Once the culprits are nabbed, the truth will come out.”
On a section of leaders making inflammatory statements, he said, “It is our appeal to everyone to show restraint and ensure our peace and harmony is not hampered. If someone makes such statements, the police will deal with them.”
Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia, who too rushed to the area, said investigations have been started and the culprits will be nabbed soon.
The sixth person who was also called out by the armed group of assailants victim had a miraculous escape as he fell down unconscious when the firing started. Narrating the experience of standing in queue for his turn to be shot dead, Basudev Namasudra said, “The gunmen, dressed in army camouflage, had brought the six of us to the spot. We had no idea why we were called out of the shop nearby where we were playing ludo. “They made us stand in a queue at a spot under a bridge and suddenly, started firing,” he said.
As smoke from the guns engulfed the area, Basudev, in his twenties, lost consciousness and fell into a little ditch near the spot he was standing. When he regained his senses, he found lifeless bodies of the other five persons lying near him and the gunmen gone.
Security forces have launched massive operations to nab the culprits and investigations launched to identify them.
Though the banned ULFA(I) has denied its involvement in the incident, the police are investigating all angles.
