Two alleged cattle smugglers were killed in an ambush on a police vehicle by suspected extremists in western Assam’s Kokrajhar district early Tuesday morning, the police said. The motive behind the attack for about 12 minutes at 1.15 a.m. could have been to free the smugglers who were a source of funding for the extremists, the officer added.
“Akbar Banjara and Salman Banjara, the accused duo, were arrested in connection with a case in Meerut and non-bailable warrants were issued against them eight months ago,” a senior district police officer said, declining to be quoted.
“During interrogation, the two disclosed the modus operandi of the smuggling of cattle from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal to Bangladesh via Assam. They also said a huge amount from the profit is distributed to extremist organisations in the Bodoland Territorial Region,” the officer said.
These organisations included the now-disbanded National Democratic Front of Boroland, the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation and some outfits of Meghalaya.
The police claimed they had on Monday evening taken Akbar and Salman along for the identification of the cattle smuggling routes along the Sankosh River along the border with Bhutan.
“Our vehicles came under heavy fire when they reached a place called Jamduar. The police personnel got down from the vehicles, took positions and started firing toward where the extremists were,” the officer said.
Caught in the crossfire, the two alleged smugglers sustained bullet injuries along with four police personnel. After the firing stopped, some of the policemen took the injured duo to the Soraibil Primary Health Centre nearby, where the doctors declared them brought dead.
The remaining police personnel searched the ambush site and recovered an AK-47 assault rifle along with two magazines, 35 rounds of live ammunition and 28 rounds of empty shells. A branch of a tree put across the road for blocking the vehicles was also recovered.
“There were signs of some of the assailants having been injured in the counter-attack. Our men are combing the area in a bid to capture the extremists,” the police officer said.
This is the first such instance of alleged cattle smugglers dying in police custody. Since May 2021, at least 30 alleged cattle smugglers, drug dealers, murderers, sexual offenders and criminals of other hues have been killed in police encounters in Assam. More than 100 others were shot in the leg while apparently trying to flee after snatching a service weapon.
