AGP demands action against perpetrators of 'secret killings'

"The Congress government has taken no action on the report of the judicial commission headed by former Supreme Court Justice Saikia. We demand that perpetrators responsible for the killings be made to face the law," AGP General Secretary Ramendra Narayan Kalita told reporters here.

He said the AGP government, which ruled Assam between 1996 and 2001, had formed a commission under Justice S Haque to investigate the killings when scores of people, including relatives of ULFA leaders, were killed by unidentified gunmen.

"However, after Tarun Gogoi came to power in 2001, three commissions were formed in succession. But no action has been taken," Kalita said.

"While the AGP government of that time took action and constituted the Haque commission to investigate the killings which took place during our regime, the Congress is only resorting to cheap politicking by playing blame-game instead of taking action to bring the culprits to book," he added.

The Saikia commission had been formed in 2005 and submitted its report in 2007. It had indicted the then Chief Minister and AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and said the killings were the outcome of a nexus between the police and the surrendered ULFA members.

"We also demand an independent enquiry on the numerous murders that have taken place in the last 11 years of the Tarun Gogoi government and also the Congress government of 1991-1996 headed by the late Hiteshwar Saikia," Kalita said, terming charges levelled against Mahanta as false.