Military hunts rebels after deadly attacks in Assam

India’s National Investigating Agency (NIA) along with Nagaland police arrested three suspected militants belonging to the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songibjit faction) from Nagaland on Wednesday night.

They were allegedly involved in the massacre of over 80 Adivasis in India’s Assam state.

According to security agency sources, the militants were making their way to Myanmar through Nagaland to escape operations to flush out the NDFB (S) militants.

NIA officers investigating four cases of the Assam massacre have completed the tour of the affected areas and are closing in on the militants involved in the massacre of Adivasi people through their secret network. Most of the dead were women and children.

One of the three militants arrested by the NIA has been identified as Ajoi Basamutary alias B. Buhum, 32, on whose alleged instructions 36 people were killed in Assam's Sonitpur area on Dec 23 last year.

The NIA said in a statement on Thursday that the three accused were arrested from Kohima on Wednesday and had been taken to Guwahati on a transit remand. They will be produced in a special NIA court.

The NIA stated that Basumatary alias B Buhum was heading the so-called 'third battalion' of the terror outfit NDFB (Songbijit faction) and it was under his direction and leadership that recent killings took place in Assam’s Sonitpur district on Dec 23, 2014, in which, 36 people including women and children were killed and six persons were injured.

The second person arrested was Dilip Basumatary alias Bir Baisa alias Lambu, 40, which the agency claimed was a dreaded terrorist responsible for co-ordinating activities of NDFB (S) in the reserved forest areas of Assam along the India-Bhutan, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh border.

He is also allegedly actively involved in the conspiracy behind recent killings in Assam.

The third militant arrested has been identified as Khamrei Basumatary alias Udla, 35. He was allegedly responsible for the attacks in Kokrajhar district in which 20 people were killed and several injured.

The NIA statement also said Udla was also allegedly involved in the killing Assam’s Baksa district in May, 2014.

The operation led to the recovery of seven mobile phones and documents that throw substantial light the on the NDFB (S) leadership, the NIA said.

The NIA is probing the massacres by the terror group. Seven mobile phones and documents related to the NDFB (S) were seized from them.