Guwahati, Aug 30 (IANS): With two more suspected dacoits killed on Saturday night in an "encounter" with police, 23 "criminals" have died in shoot-outs with police in different parts of Assam during around 100 days.
Amidst controversy as various political parties, rights groups and civil society question the purported "police encounters" in Assam, police killed two more suspected dacoits in western Assam's Goalpara district on Saturday night.
This was the 13th such "encounter" since Himanta Biswa Sarma Sarma became Chief Minister on May 10.
Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, in a tweet, said that two dacoits, Rafajuddin Ali and Basit Ali, died in the "shootout" while Rashidul Islam has been injured and shifted to the hospital.
"We are on the lookout for a fourth accomplice. All of them have prior cases of dacoity against them. One gun and the car in which they were travelling have been recovered. The Goalpara police yesterday night (Saturday) had to chase criminals across the area of four police stations, while being shot at by the criminals ! But finally Police got better of them," he said.
According to the police, the first "encounter" between the security forces and "criminals" took place on May 23 when six cadres of the outlawed Dimasa National Liberation Army were gunned down in Karbi Anglong district. Two militants of the United Revolutionary People's Front were gunned down in the second encounter on June 20, also in the same district.
On June 23, Bubu Konwar, wanted for several murders and crimes was shot dead in Sivasagar district while on July 2, Kanwaldeep Singh Sindhu, a railway official turned criminal and wanted in a kidnapping case, was killed in Karbi Anglong district. Cattle smuggler -- Chaurangi Syni -- was also killed in Kokrajhar district that day.
Between July 3 and July 11, "encounters" with Assam Police claimed the lives of four "criminals" in Kamrup, Nagaon, Chirang, and Dibrugarh districts while in between August 7 and August 23, Assam Police killed a drug peddler, four dacoits, and a arms smuggler in different districts.
Police claimed that in some of the cases, the criminals "snatched weapons from the police" and tried to shoot their way out.