Assam: Hmar groups seek probe into deaths of 3 alleged militants, say they were ‘village volunteers’

Groups representing the Hmar tribe of North East India on Wednesday sought an investigation into the deaths of three persons from the community in an alleged gunfight with the police in Assam’s Cachar district.

The Hmar Students’ Association and the Hamar Inpui, the apex body of the Hmar tribe in the North East, alleged that the three persons, identified as Lallungawi Hmar, Lalbeikkung Hmar and Joshua, were “arbitrarily detained, taken to an undisclosed location and then brutally shot dead under circumstances that defy all principles of justice and human rights”.

On Wednesday, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that three suspected militants were killed in a gunfight with the Cachar Police. He added that the police recovered three rifles and a pistol from them.

The police later claimed that they had first arrested the three men before taking them to the Bhuban Hills area, where another group of suspected militants were reportedly hiding with a huge cache of arms.

According to the police’s statement, as their personnel and the three suspected militants reached the hills, the second group of suspected militants opened fire at them.

“The apprehended militants wearing bulletproof jackets and helmets sustained on their persons,” read the statements.

They were taken to a hospital where the police said they were...

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