Militants kill 4 CRPF men ahead of Assam polls

Diphu: Ahead of the first phase of assembly polls on Monday, KPLT insurgents on Saturday ambushed a CRPF convoy killing four jawans and injuring as many in Assam's Karbi Anglong district. A group of Karbi Peoples Liberation Tiger insurgents opened fire at the convoy of three CRPF vehicles carrying 18

men at Arlangso in Deothar, police said. The jawans died on the spot.

While three of the injured were admitted to Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) Hospital in neighbouring Golaghat district, one critically injured was sent to Gauhati Medical College Hospital. The paramilitary force personnel also retaliated but the rebels escaped into the thick jungles, sources said.

Eleven rounds of empty cartridges of light machine guns (LMG) and self-loading rifles (SLR) were recovered from the spot. The CRPF men were on an operation in the area since last night to ensure safety of the polling stations ahead of

Militants kill 4 CRPF men ahead of Assam polls

the first phase of voting on Monday.

Three of the victims were identified as Mika Singh, Dilip Kumar and Debendra Shaw.

The KPLT militant outfit was formed in January by an anti-peace talk group of 25 members of the Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF) after it had laid down arms. The KPLT had given a call for an indefinite district bandh from Thursday saying it had not received a reply from the political parties to its five-point charter of demands, including autonomous statehood for Karbi Anglong, halt to operations against the outfit and development of education

facilities here.

The extremist outfit had, however, withdrawn its bandh call on Saturday morning. Voting will be held on Monday in the district and 61 other constituencies in the first phase of elections for the 126-member Assam assembly.