Mix-up Turns Fatal for 50-year-old Assamese Farmer

GUWAHATI:An Assamese man, who on Tuesday opened fire on a joint police-Army team after mistaking them for encroachers from neighbouring Nagaland, was killed in retaliatory firing by the security forces.

The deceased was identified as 50-year-old Demo Fonglo.

The incident, which took place at Disapur near the Doldoli Reserve Forest on Assam-Nagaland border at around 4 am, also resulted in multiple injuries  to a Police Constable.

“He would always wake up early. Today (Tuesday) when he awoke, he heard people moving. He thought they were encroachers from Nagaland and fired at them,” said Fonglo’s family members .

The security personnel were in the area following a tip-off that some terrorists were holed up there.

Fonglo, who allegedly did not possess a gun licence, fired from a 12 bore gun. The police-Army team mistook him for a militant and retaliated.

According to Fonglo’s family,he was an innocent farmer with no links with the militants.

“Constable Pranab Bora, who sustained injuries in the firing, has been admitted to the Civil Hospital in Diphu,” Karbi Anglong Police chief Mugdha Jyoti Mahanta said.

The locals in Karbi Anglong alleged that there had been large-scale encroachment of land by Nagas near the Doldoli Reserve Forest over the last couple of months.

Last year, the district authorities had evicted a number of encroachers from Karbi Anglong.