Assam MLA Akhil Gogoi calls recent ULFA-I related encounters as 'Fake'

Raijor Dal party leaders and Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi has claimed that the recent encounters in Assam which have been connected to the ULFA-Independent militant outfit, are all fake encounters. 

Addressing the media today, Gogoi called these encounters as fake and said that the encounter in Sadiya where three youths were shot was fake. 

"All of these firing incidents are doubtful and they are all fake encounters. Biswanth Borgohain, Manoj Borgohain, Dipjyoti Neog... police may say all sort of things, but they are contractual workers with the ASEB who lost their jobs. Reportedly they were drinking alcohol and then in an inebriated state they called up their homes and said that they are going to join te ULFA. After their families informed the police, they were then taken and encountered. So it is clear that it was a fake encounter," said Akhil Gogoi.

Gogoi also questioned the shootout in Sivasagar constituency where a youth identified as Pallab Jyoti Gogoi was shot at and arrested in connection with the grenade blast at Jaisagar. He also mentioned that the encounter of Pranjal Das at Baihata Chariali is also a fake one.

"Second is Pallab Jyoti Gogoi, who is a citizen of Sivasagar constituency, hence my constituency. He was a manual labourer. He was shot in a fake encounter in connection with an incident of hand grenade throwing. We can see that Pallab Jyoti Gogoi has been shot in a fake encounter. In same way, the incident of Pranjal Das is also doubted to be a fake encounter. He was a simple youth and he has also been shot. And his family is alleging that he was shot inside the police station, after closing all the doors and windows," said the Sivasagar MLA. 

Pallab Jyoti Gogoi was arrested by the police on Friday on suspicion of being involved in a grenade blast near the CRPF camp in Jaisagar on December 9. Pallab Jyoti Gogoi was injured in the police encounter. Pallab Jyoti Gogoi is currently undergoing treatment. 

The police claim that Pallab Jyoti Gogoi was directly involved in the Jaisagar blast. Even in 2019, Pallav was arrested in the past for staying in the camp of ULFA Swadhin for a month, police claimed. Later, Pallab's father flatly denied the police's claim.

Meanwhile, the ULFA-I, in a statement, has claimed that these encounters are fake and also sought proof regarding the encounters that happened and the link of the victims with the proscribed outfit. 

Akhil Gogoi also targeted Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and DGP GP Singh are trying to make a rerun of the fake encounter era that was witnessed in the 90s decade. He also took a potshot at the DGP over his recent Facebook posts.   

"We used to see these sort of fake encounters in the 90s decade when the government was running operations against the ULFA. Now what are Himanta Biswa Sarma and GP Singh trying to achieve? Are they trying to bring back those black days to Assam? We can say these encounters are fake as a few days ago that GP Singh had written on Facebook that ULFA is a terrorist outfit and action will be taken against people who try to join them. GP Singh had also written a philosophical statement on Facebook. He had said that if someone throws a stone in a pond and the ripples somehow affect him, then the fault is on the stone thrower. Normally, ahead of such fake encounters, GP Singh makes such statements. And after that these two incidents happened where five Assamese youths were shot in fake encounters,"

The Sivasagar MLA also made a demand to the Chief Minister and the DGP that the alleged fake encounters in the state must stop.

"Raijor Dal formally demands that such fake encounters must stop. We want to warn the Chief Minister and the DGP that such incidents of fake encounters must stop. This is the clear demand of an opposition party and of a legislator like Himanta Biswa Sarma, since he is also an MLA himself," said Gogoi.