Extortion call: militants beaten up, one dies

A day after two powerful blasts triggered off by the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) killed as many as five persons at Tinsukia district in Upper Assam, villagers near Dergaon in Golaghat district, also in Upper Assam, beat at least one ULFA militant to death.

Reports from Dergaon said villagers surrounded and thrashed three ULFA militants in Jarabari under Dergaon police station when they had gone to the house of one Sajal Chakravarty and demanded money from him. When Chakravarty, an anchalik panchayat councilor, refused to give them money, one of the militants fired a round at him. Chakravarty, however, raised a hue and cry and dozens of villagers came running to his aid, surrounded them and gave them a good beating.

One of the militants, Manoranjan Doley alias Mangal Singh, succumbed to his injuries in the Dergaon Government Hospital, officials at the Dergaon police station said. The two accomplices of the deceased militant, Manikanta Sarah and Ganesh Pegu, who also sustained serious injuries , are undergoing treatment in the hospital.

Meanwhile, Director-General of Police R N Mathur said on Monday that the ULFA had triggered the twin blasts at Tinsukia to prove that the group was “still going strong”. “We had prior information that the ULFA would do something in a couple of days. The outfit has suffered a lot in the recent past and the arrest of Prabal Neog, commander of its 28 Battalion, was a severe blow to the ULFA,” Mathur said.