New Delhi: Two days after three Hmar youth were killed in an encounter whom the Assam Police had identified as armed militants nabbed during an operation in the state’s Cachar district, their families have filed a first information report (FIR) on Friday (July 19) at the district’s Lakhipur police station seeking an investigation into the matter.
As per the FIR seen by The Wire, the three families of the deceased have termed the killings as “custodial death,” and have sought an investigation into the matter so that those responsible for their death could be punished as per “the prevailing provisions of the law”.
The death of the three Hmar youth — Joshua Hmar, Lalbiekkung Hmar and Lallungawi Hmar — had hit the headlines on July 18 after a video clip featuring them being brought out of a three-wheeler with a bag by the local police went viral. Without taking out anything from the bag, a police personnel was heard saying that there was a pistol inside it.
A day before the video went viral — on July 17, Cachar superintendent of police Numal Mahatta had held a press conference in Silchar to inform local media that three Hmar militants were killed in an encounter with the police.
Mahatta told reporters that there was an exchange of fire for over an hour with the three militants in which three policemen were also injured. Stating that police fired in self-defence, the Cachar Police also displayed some arms purportedly recovered from the slain militants.
The police claimed that the militants were dressed in black Kevlar bulletproof outfits and helmets.
As per Cachar Police, three youth travelling in a three-wheeler were arrested on July 16 at around 4.30 pm. On interrogation, they revealed that their fellow members were taking shelter in Bhubaneswar Hill area. Police said a special operation was launched on the morning of July 17, around that area in which the three militants wearing bulletproof jackets and helmets were apprehended after they got injured in a crossfire.
News agency PTI reported that the police had taken the militants to the Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) where they were declared dead.
However, as per their families, those identified as militants by the police were none other than the three youth apprehended on July 16. The viral video of July 18 didn’t show them wearing any bulletproof gear or helmet. The families have underlined that their sons were not militants and there had been no record of criminal activity against them.
They have mentioned in the police complaint that though the youth were arrested on July 16, their families were not informed about it. “We are filing this report lately (late) because neither any of our family members nor our relatives were informed about their arrest (by district police), and we came to know about their death through the viral photograph on social media on July 18 at about 8 am which was shown to my (our) relatives and some well-wishers in which their lifeless bodies were seen in a pool of blood at SMCH morgue.”
Since July 18, more video clips have surfaced including one that features at least one of the Hmar youths in handcuffs, and one other clip showing them being taken inside a dense forest. In those clips they were dressed in black bulletproof outfits. The family, which submitted the complaint along with the video clips in a pen drive, said, “It seems they were forced to wear the Kevlar (outfits).”
While one of the youth belonged to Manipur, the other two were residents of a village along Assam’s border with Manipur.
No sooner did the news spread, various Hmar civil society organisations and student bodies of Manipur and elsewhere, so also from the Kuki community, issued press statements condemning the killings and termed them as ‘fake encounters’ by Assam Police.
Churachandpur-based Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) highlighted the “glaring inconsistency” in the videos and what the police officially stated and called the killings “extra-judicial”.
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They pointed out that the three youth apprehended by police while travelling in a three wheeler on July 16 were seen in the video clip coming out of the vehicle without any resistance.
“But in a bizarre twist,” those whom the police identified as “three dead militants (one of them wearing bullet proof vest in pictures leaked from the morgue) turned out to be the three youths already in police custody since the previous evening.”
Terming them as “extra-judicial killings” by Assam Police, ITLF condemned Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for lauding the police for the killings. The outfit has demanded that the state government institute an impartial probe into the matter and has also urged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to take suo moto cognisance of it.
In an early morning operation, @cacharpolice killed 3 Hmar militants from Assam and neighbouring Manipur. Police also recovered 2 AK rifles, 1 other rifle, and 1 pistol. @gpsinghips
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 17, 2024
Kuki Women’s Organisation for Human Rights and Hmar Students Association have also called NHRC to intervene and initiate a judicial enquiry.
Hmar Inpui, the apex body of the community, has also issued a statement condemning the killings. It has demanded that the Assam government must compensate the families, take disciplinary action against the police officials involved in the case, and order an independent magisterial inquiry. “Abuse of power by Assam Police should be immediately stopped,” the release said.
Talking to The Wire, Richard Hmar, general secretary of Hmar Inpui, said, “Though the police is saying the youth were armed, we don’t see them with arms in those video clips when they were arrested. We only hear in one video police saying that they have arms. This makes us fully doubt the police side of the story.”
Richard added, “There are 20 to 30 villages of Hmar tribe in Assam’s Cachar district; also 80 to 90 villages of our tribe in the state’s Dima Hasao district. Our villages touch both Mizoram and Manipur borders of Assam, we reside in Mizoram and Manipur too. We have been living in these areas for centuries. Our relatives are, therefore, spread across the entire region. After this encounter, we are scared that any of our youth travelling to some relatives house, etc. can be apprehended by police and (they may) kill them in a fake encounter by terming them as militants.”
The Hmar community inhabits Meghalaya and Tripura too. Low intensity militancy within the Hmar community was noted in late 1990s in Mizoram with the birth of the armed outfit Hmar People’s Convention (HPC- Democracy) which sought a separate Hmar state. In 2017, the outfit had entered into an agreement with the Mizoram government to usher in peace.
