SILCHAR: Directly accusing the Cachar police of “custodial killing” of three youths, the Hmar community residing in the district sought the intervention of the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for justice. A protest rally was brought out in Markulin, a tribal majority area under the banner of Hmar community of Barak Valley on Monday.
Later, the protestors demanded an independent inquiry committee with an IGP rank officer from outside the state as the head. Further, the Hmars demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore each to the families of the three youths who, as claimed by the Cachar SP Nomal Mahatta, were killed in crossfire during a heavy exchange of bullets between the Hmar militants and a team of Assam Police on July 17. The Hmars further demanded all the police personnel involved in the “custodial death” should be arrested, suspended and prosecuted.
Meanwhile, the incident took further sensitive turn as the families of the deceased youths and the other residents of the Bethel punji refused to receive the dead bodies of their sons which were still kept in the SMCH morgue.
On July 16, the Cachar police apprehended three Hmar youths from an auto-rickshaw in Ganganagar area in Dholai’s Kachudaram. Next morning, the youths, identified as Lalunggai Hmar, Lalbikuing Hmar and Joshua Hmar, were reported to have sustained serious bullet injuries during a gun battle between the police and a Hmar militant outfit. The SP Cachar Nomal Mahatta in a press briefing claimed that these three youths were cadres of the militant group. During interrogation, they confessed that other members of the outfit were hiding in the Bhuvan hill and they were contemplating a major attack in Manipur. Mahatta further claimed that the apprehended youths took the police team to the hideouts of the militants on last Tuesday night and as they reached the foothills of Bhuvan the militants started spraying bullets at the police. During the gun battle, the youths who were in bullet-proof gear and helmet provided by the police itself, sustained severe injuries and subsequently succumbed. Three policemen were also injured. Mahatta said that they had seized a number of firearms including two AK series rifles.
On Monday, the Hmar community people came out in the street and registered their protest against the “custodial death” of the three youths. In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister Sarma, the Hmar people said that the statement of the SP Nomal Mahatta was a fictional as they argued that the claims of the police itself indicated the “foul play amounting to intentional and unprofessional exposure of civilians in police custody with or without bullet-proof jackets and helmets during a fire-fight which was in direct violation of the right of a person under police custody.” They further accused the Cachar police of extra judicial execution.
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