Acting on a tip-off that a team of ULFA ultras were hiding at the residence of one Govinda Deka at Borka village, a police team stormed into the hide out late last night. The police team was engaged in a long gun battle by the well-armed group of militants.
Police suspected that the slain militants might be two senior leaders of the ULFA's 709 battalion. The identity of the civilian killed in the encounter was yet to be confirmed by the police.
Meanwhile, a joint team of police and the Army on Wednesday seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition from two activists of Assam-based human rights group Manab Adhikar Sangram Samity near
Rangiya in Kamrup district of Assam.
Police recovered the arms and ammunition that included eight programmable timer device, 5 kg of RDX explosives and eight grenades, while the consignment was being taken in a Tata Sumo (AS 01 K 3834) by MASS activists Shyamal Sharma and Dipu Deka from a place near Tura in Meghalaya to Mangaldoi in north Assam.
Both the MASS activists and driver of the vehicle were arrested by the police. Shyamal Sharma is the general secretary of Darrang district unit of the MASS.
Police claimed that the arms and explosives were being carried on behalf of the banned ULFA. The police and the Army have been maintaining that workers of the MASS have close links with the banned ULFA.
It may be mentioned that a senior state-level leader of the MASS, Lachit Bordoloi is a convenor of the ULFA constituted People's Consultative Group that was entrusted with the task to facilitate direct talks between the outfit and the government of India.
