UDALGURI, Jan 22— The death toll of last night’s brutal massacre of Hindi-speaking villagers of No 3 Borigaon under Udalguri police station in Darrang district today went up to 18 following deaths of two injured persons on way to Guwahati Medical College Hospital here. According to latest information about the massacre carried out by suspected NDFB militants, a heavily armed group of ultras wearing olive green fatigues swooped down on the village around 8 pm yesterday. They called out members of seven Hindi-speaking families of the village and told them to stand in a line before opening indiscriminate fire from AK-47 assault rifles killing 16 of them on the spot and seriously injuring five others. Those killed on the spot included nine women and two minor children.
Two of the five seriously injured persons died later while they were being shifted to Guwahati Medical College Hospital here. Those who perished on the spot were identified as Budhnu Rajbhar (45), Sobhapati Rajbhar (40), Gobari Rajbhar (4), Jagadish Rajbhar (30), Janaki Rajbhar (20), Chamrasia Rajbhar (55), Rameswar Rajbhar (65), Jai Chunari Rajbhar (50), Govinda Rajbhar (30), Savanti Rajbhar (7), Sonia Rajbhar (70), Karmai Rajbhar (60) and four other guests of the victim families. Ten of the slain persons belonged to two families.
The militants also set afire 18 houses and seven shops during the attack on the villagers before making good their escape on foot. According to eyewitness accounts, the marauding militants were speaking in Hindi and were dressed in olive green Army fatigues. The SDPO, Udalguri had rushed to the spot with additional forces immediately after the incident last night. The bodies were brought to Mangaldoi this morning for post-mortem even as the Deputy Commissioner, Shantanu Thakur, announced ex-gratia of Rs 5,000 each to the next of the kin of the victims of the gruesome massacre. The security measures in the area have been geared up and a combing operation has been launched in the area.
Meanwhile, the Udalguri unit of Hindu Yuva Chatra Parishad and Bajrang Dal today condemned the incident along with many other organisations like the ABSU, AASU and AANSU.