Two days after an improvised explosive device (IED) blast ripped through several feet of railway track in Assam’s Kokrajhar district, a man suspected to be responsible for the blast was killed in an encounter with police.
Kokrajhar SSP Pushpraj Singh said the deceased, identified as Epil Murmu, alias Rohit Murmu, is believed to be a member of the National Santhal Liberation Army, a militant outfit known to operate in Assam’s Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR). The officer said the same group had claimed responsibility for a similar blast in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district last year.
In the early hours of Thursday, an IED blast had destroyed around 8-10 feet of railway track between Salakati and Kokrajhar in the BTR. The damage was identified and repaired before it could lead to any adverse incident involving trains.
SSP Singh said that on Friday night, the police received information that an armed group was hiding on Nadanguri hill in Kokrajhar district.
“We received an input that they are planning some big attack. So, a police team planned a cordon and search operation. They went there and conducted a search. At around 6 am, they were fired on, and the police team fired in retaliation. After that, when they searched the area, they found an injured person. We immediately moved him to the hospital, where he was declared brought dead,” he said.
Singh said that a pistol, two grenades and two ID cards — a voter ID with the name Epil Murmu and an ATM card with the name Rohit Murmu — were retrieved from the site. He said police have information that a total of around 10 people were at the site of the encounter and that the rest have moved further up the hill. Police are pursuing them, he said.
Earlier this year, a Jharkhand police team had reached out looking for the same individual in connection with a 2024 blast on railway tracks in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district, the SSP said.
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“His group, NSLA, had taken responsibility for that attack and had fled here. The Jharkhand Police said they had been active there since around 2015 and that they have a strong Maoist connection. When we checked our records, we found that we also have an Arms Act case from 2014 where there is a non-bailable warrant against him. Since the modus operandi is the same as the 2024 Jharkhand incident, we strongly suspect that the same group and Rohit Murmu can be responsible for the incident [that took place on Thursday]. Our investigation will now move in that direction,” said Singh.
The NSLA is one of eight militant groups whose cadres had been part of a mass laying down of arms in 2020. Eighty-seven cadres of the group had surrendered in the presence of then Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. The group had been formed in 2005, emerging from conflict with Bodo groups in the region.
