One of the attackers was killed in retaliatory action by security forces.
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Top local police official L.R. Bishnoi said that six rebels fired automatic weapons and lobbed grenades Friday in the market in Balajan, an area just outside the town of Kokrajhar in western Assam.
Police blamed a faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland for the attack. “We have launched an intensive operation to track down others involved in the terror attack”, state police chief Mukesh Sahay told the media.
AK-56 and 47 series rifles along with grenades were recovered from the spot.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh was briefed about the attack by National Security Advisor A K Doval. Criticising strongly the attack on innocent people in Kokrajhar, the Congress on Saturday said the method adopted by militants to get their demand accepted by the government is unacceptable. Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has condemned the killings and directed district authorities to provide medical aid to the injured. Denouncing the attack by suspected NDFB (S) in Korajhar that claimed 12 lives as “cowardly and dastardly”, Sonowal had said on Friday that the militants would be dealt with “very sternly”.
Meanwhile, four additional companies of paramilitary forces were today rushed to Kokrajhar, the release said.
“Saddened by the attack in Kokrajhar (district)”. The Assam government has chose to grant an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh to those injured, he said. “We brought the parents of Maodang but they failed to identify the body of the slain militant”, said Mr Bishnoi, adding that they would succeed in identifying the militant soon.
The Assam Police Saturday said that the attack in a market here that left 14 people dead was carried out on the instructions of leaders of the Songbijit faction of the NDFB based in Bhutan.
“Giving security to people is a duty of an elected government and it has to fulfill this”, he said.
“Although the family members have identified the slain NDFB commander, we are going to go for DNA test to ascertain his identity scientifically”, Sarma said.
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Sonowal, in his meeting with Modi, also urged him to bail out the state from recurring floods and erosion especially against the backdrop of recent floods in the state, Assam government sources said here.
