Congress blames former CM Mahanta for 'secret killings'

Under attack from the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (anti-talks) faction over its failure to punish culprits behind the secret killings of innocent family members of ULFA members that took place in Assam between 1996 and 2001, the Congress government in Assam on Tuesday blamed former Assam chief minister and Asom Gana Parishad leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for allowing the gruesome episode to take place in the state.

Assam government's spokesman and senior cabinet minister Dr Himanta Bishwa Sarma told the media that the Congress government, led by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, got the secret killings probed through a judicial commission headed by a former Supreme Court Justice K N Saikia. The report clearly indicted the then home minister (Prafulla Kumar Mahanta) for failing to take any steps to prevent those extrajudicial killings.

Sarma said the Justice Saikia Commission report also mentioned the involvement of surrendered ULFA militants (popularly called SULFA men) in those killings.

Regarding the indictment of Mahanta by the K N Saikia Commission, Assam government spokesman Dr Sarma stated that none of the chief ministers in Assam except Mahanta had been indicted by any judicial commission.

It may be mentioned that despite submission of the inquiry report by Justice K N Saikia Commission, the Congress government in Assam has so far failed to bring anybody to book on charges of perpetrating 'secret killings'.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has cited lack of sufficient evidence behind his government's inability to punish the culprits.

As the Congress government has failed to keep the promise made during elections to punish culprits behind 'secret killings', the opposition AGP and its leader Mahanta has accused it of hoodwinking the people of Assam by using the issue as a plank to win the polls.