The Meghalaya police have recovered the bodies of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) official and a trader, who were abducted by a Garo Hills based militant outfit about a month ago, from a remote location in South Garo Hills district on Saturday even as a civil society organisation has demanded a probe by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) into the killing.
Garo Hills based militant outfit A’chik Songna An’pachakgipa Kotok (ASAK) militants had abducted the two-IB officer Bikash Kumar Singh and trader Kamal Saha-at gun point on September 24 this year from near Panda Reserve Forest in South Garo Hills while the duo were travelling from Rongapara to Baghmara in a public transport.
Although the police had launched an operation against the militants immediately, yet nothing was known about the whereabouts of the two. Police had earlier claimed that the duo had been taken to Bangladesh after the abduction.
“The two bodies were recovered from a remote location close to Indo-Bangladesh border yesterday. The bodies were exhumed and taken to Baghmara for autopsy,” said Meghalaya Director General of Police Rajiv Mehta adding that an operation had already been launched to nab the militants involved in the crime.
The police had also claimed that they have identified the ASAK militants involved in killing the IB official and the trader.
However, Meghalaya based civil society organization, Civil Society Women’s Organization (CSWO),smelled a rat behind the killing and demanded a probe by the NIA into the killing, which has also threatened many officials and personnel serving to protect the people and the state.
“The CSWO is also informed from inside sources, that there are many targeted killings and kidnappings, while the coal barons and businessmen having proximity and sharing business of coal quarries with high ranking cops of the state are never targeted but instead seems to be allowed to get away with any crime. In West Khasi Hills militants seem to be walking freely with weapons and ‘khukris’,” said CSWO president, Agnes Kharshiing in a statement issued on Sunday.
“The Organisation was also informed that Bikash Kumar Singh got wind of very important information in Shillong and he was transferred to South Garo Hills after that. The Society of Meghalaya especially Garo Hills, is not a violent society except for few which the police seem to protect and when demands are made for transfer of such police there is no action from the government which seems hell bent in protecting the evil ones,” Agnes said.