2 cattle smugglers killed in ambush on police vehicle in Assam

Extremist groups get share of profits from illegal trade to Bangladesh, police said

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.