A day after the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act (AFSPA) was scrapped from 23 districts of Assam, two militants of the banned National Liberation Front of Bodoland (NLFB) were injured in an encounter with the police in Sonitpur district along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border on Friday, police said.
Acting on specific inputs about the presence of NLFB cadres at 12 mile area of Bhalukpong town, police had stepped up operations in the area and had nabbed a surrendered militant, identified as Erkadao Narzary, Sonitpur Superintendent of Police Dhananjay Ghanawat said,
As the operations continued, two militants attempted to escape and an encounter followed in which they were injured.
The militants were admitted to the Tezpur Medical College Hospital and their condition was stated to be out of control.
The militants were allegedly involved in the extortion and kidnapping of a person in 2016 and a case was registered against them in this connection.
Ghanawat alleged that these militants had devised different ways of extorting money from the people.
Narzary had surrendered in 2021 and had started a printing press with the rehabilitation money while the other two militants printed NLFB letter heads in this press for sending out extortion notes, the police official claimed.
The police have recovered several mobile phones, a laptop and documents from their possession.
AFSPA has been withdrawn from Sonitpur district.
