From Sandeep Sharma
GUWAHATI: A drug mafia identified as Khairul Islam was killed and two persons, including a a police sub inspector were injured in an encounter near Geruwamukh village under Khatuwal police station in Nagaon district in the wee hours of Sunday.
Two persons police sub inspector Alak Datta Gupta, officer in-charge of Khatuwal police station and Utpal Boruah, driver of the police team, were also seriously injured in the incident.
The injured have been admitted in Nagaon BP Civil Hospital.
With the fresh death, at least 16 accused people have been killed in police encounters in the state since the second BJP government under chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma assumed charge on May 10.
The incident took place when a police team led by Khatowal police station officer-in-charge Alok Datta Gupta conducted a raid at a house in Geruwamukh area around 1 am of Sunday.
Kahirul and three others were found sitting around something at his house when a police team conducted a raid at his house on Saturday night.
The police SI asked them to surrender. But the drug dealer attacked the OC with a ‘khukuri’ (machete) targeting his neck. Datta Gupta sustained grievous injuries, particularly on his hands, while trying to save himself,” Nagaon superintendent of police Anand Kumar Mishra told reporters here.
“The gang members, who were packing drugs into small sachets, also attacked other policemen,” the SP said, adding that a contractual driver was also injured.
Datta Gupta had to open fire in self-defence but it is not yet clear whether the drug dealers had also used firearms in their attack, he said.
The drug dealer, the OC and the driver were admitted to Nagaon Civil Hospital, where the doctors declared the accused brought dead, while the remaining gang members managed to escape, the officer said.
The OC and the driver are being treated at the hospital.
“The OC has just around one-and-a-half years of service left but the moment he received the information about the drug dealers, he went ahead with the raid with just four constables with him. The officer has impressed everyone with his sincerity towards duty,” the SP said.
With the latest encounter, a total of 16 suspects have been killed and 31 injured while trying to flee from or evade police custody in Assam in the last three months.
The unabated police encounters have led the opposition and a section of the civil society to accuse the police under the second BJP government in the state of indulging in “open killings”.
