GUWAHATI:
Two traders were shot at by armed miscreants in two separate incidents in Assam’s Kokrajhar and Chirang districts under the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) on the night of June 4.
The two people have been identified as Sunil Mondol, a trader, and businessman Anil Ishwary. Both the men were seriously injured in the incident.
Both times, the miscreants used AK-series weapons, which gave the police reason to believe that members of the breakaway faction of the Bodo armed group might be involved.
According his family, Mondol was sitting on the verandah of his house in the Narabari area under the Serfanguri police station in Kokrajhar district when two bike-borne miscreants came and opened fire at him around 8:30 pm on June 4. He received one bullet injury near his chest and was admitted to Serfanguri Hospital but later, was shifted to Lower Assam Hospital in Bongaigaon.
“Mondol has received an extortion demand of Rs 2 lakh from the militants of Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) a few days back,” one of his family members said.
Following the incident, two KLO cadres, Uttam Roy (24) and Mridul Roy (26), were arrested in this connection.
“We have started the investigation and strong measures are being taken to nab the culprits involved in it,” Kokrajhar superintendent of police Prateek Thube said.
In another incident that took place at around 12:30 am, miscreants indiscriminately fired at businessman Ishwary (55) while he was at his house at Amteka market under Amguri police station in Chirang district. He was critically injured after receiving bullet injuries to his chest and hand and was shifted to Lower Assam Hospital in Bongaigaon.
“A group of miscreants fired at him through a window of our house when he was sleeping. They came to our house at midnight and fired upon my husband, who is the owner of a hardware shop. There was no demand or threat from anyone earlier. We are very shocked and do not have any idea why they (miscreants) did so,” Kabita, wife of Ishwary, said.
While the reason for the shooting is yet to be ascertained, Chirang superintendent of police Pranjit Borah said, “We have found empty shells. We are investigating the matter and nothing can be ruled out as of now.”