Guwahati, May 20 : Two men in shorts and T-shirts walked into a Congress councillor’s house in Diphu and shot dead three members of his family this evening.
Apu Das, the councillor, and his brother Ujjal were at their furniture shop when the gunmen came around 7.45pm. They shot Das’s wife Manju, 40, daughter Momi, 17, niece Juhi, 8, and a private tutor, Seema Roy. All died on the spot.
A woman neighbour was injured in the attack.
Police sources said the duo came on foot and fired indiscriminately.
Quoting eyewitnesses, the police said the killers used an AK-series rifle and a pistol.
Das is the councillor of ward 3, a thickly populated Bengali-dominated locality in Karbi Anglong district in central Assam.
The motive behind the killings is yet to be ascertained but the involvement of militants is not ruled out. “It could also be an extortion-related case,” a police official said.
This morning, around 75km from Diphu, six militants of the National Democratic Front of Boroland were gunned down by a police team.
A police source said the killing of Das’s family could be in retaliation to the gunning down of the militants but official confirmation was not available.
“The assailants opened fire on all the members sitting in the drawing room and left the spot within minutes,” a police officer said.
Anita Majumdar, the injured neighbour, said: “I heard the gunshots from my kitchen. When I rushed out, a bullet hit me in the leg. I ran back into the house.”
Anita was admitted to Diphu civil hospital but shifted to an army hospital in Dimapur, Nagaland, around 40km from Diphu.
