The Gauhati High Court on Thursday directed the Cachar district administration and police to preserve the mortal remains of three Hmar tribals killed in alleged crossfire between militants and the police force.
The court's directions came after the families of the three deceased Hmar men approached the court requesting their post-mortem to be done by medical experts outside Assam.
Hearing the matter, the court directed the Cachar Police and the district administration to keep the bodies of the deceased at a morgue.
After being accused of extra-judicial killings of the three Hmar tribals, Assam Police had said earlier that police firing was in self-defence against a barrage of bullets rained on a tactical team by strategically positioned militants.
This comes after Hmar Inpui, an organization of the Hmar tribe leveled sensational allegations of extra-judicial killings against Assam Police following the death of three Hmars in police custody in an ambush along the Assam-Mizoram border recently.
Cachar district superintendent of police Numal Mahatta addressed a press conference saying the police team, accompanying three suspected Hmar militants who were nabbed earlier, was ambushed. A group of militants took cover of a huge tree to open fire on the police team when the police retaliated in self-defence.
Explaining the sequence of events, Mahatta said, "We had inputs of the movement of three armed cadres in the Kachudaram area and that they were trying to enter our district through the bordering regions. Accordingly, a special police team carried out an operation and nabbed three militants travelling in an auto-rickshaw. One of them initially managed to escape, but we tracked him down and caught him. After being extensively grilled, the trio revealed that another group of armed militants were camping an area nearby."
According to the Cachar SP, the militants planned "subversive activities" along the Assam-Manipur border and the police, with that information in hand, could not allow anything to go down. "We will not allow any such activities to disrupt peace in Assam. As per our knowledge, they were members of Hmar terrorist organization and they were highly trained cadres," he said.
Mahatta further said, "Based on the information, a raid was mapped out. Our tactical team reached the foothills of Bhuban Pahar along with the nabbed Hmar trio. There, the team was ambushed by a group of six to seven militants who were heavily armed and strategically positioned behind the wilderness. Accordingly, our team took positions and to ensure the safety of the three people in our custody, we clad them with bullet-proof vests and helmets.
"However, in the ensuing cross-fire, they were hit. Three of our personnel were also injured in the firing. We have transferred the policemen to Silchar Medical College. Meanwhile, the Hmar tribals in our custody were rushed to Sonai PHE and later transferred to SMCH. The attending doctor there declared them dead," added the Cachar SP.
