GUWAHATI, May 21 � The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today received the nod from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to register the cases relating to the killing of more than 40 innocent people in Baksa and Kokrajhar districts on May 1 and 2.
Highly placed official sources told The Assam Tribune that the NIA needs the approval of the MHA to register cases. The Assam Government, following demands from various organisations, requested the Centre to hand over the cases of the killings to the national agency.
Sources said that the NIA would register four cases � three in Baksa district and one in Kokrajhar district tomorrow, and investigations would start soon. There is every possibility of teams of NIA officials coming from New Delhi to investigate the cases.
As the first step, the NIA already received the FIRs registered in different police stations of Kokrajhar and Baksa in connection with the killings and immediately after the investigation starts, the national agency would call for the records of the investigations carried out by the Assam Police so far, in connection with the cases.
It may be mentioned that more than 40 persons belonging to a minority community, were killed in separate attacks by armed miscreants in Kokrajhar and Baksa districts. The Assam Police and the security forces engaged in counter-insurgency operations in Assam were of the view that militants belonging to the Songbijit faction of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) were involved in the killings and those involved managed to escape towards Bhutan following the massacre.
In fact, the Director General of Police, Khagen Sarma himself admitted that the police had prior information about possibility of such attacks and several attempts of the militants could be foiled. But it was not possible to guard each and every village and the militants attacked soft targets in interior places.
