Hmar groups demand investigation into killing of 3 persons in Assam, allege rights violations

Groups representing the Hmar tribe of North East India on Wednesday sought an investigation into the killing 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, accused the police of violating human rights.

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

The police later said that they had taken those arrested to the Bhuban Hills after the investigating team was told that some other suspected militants were hiding in the area with a huge cache of arms.

According to the statement, as the police team and the arrested persons reached the hills, the 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 soon declared dead.

The Hmar Students’ Association, however, later said that the persons who died were not militants but “village volunteers who valiantly defended the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar villages against Meitei militants”.

The student body alleged that the three persons,...

Read more