Assam murder convict shot dead 2 months after fleeing from prison

A 34-year-old murder convict, who fled from Assam’s Silchar Central Jail two months back, was killed in the state’s Cachar district while police were bringing him back to the prison after rearresting him on Monday.

Police superintendent (Cachar) Numal Mahatta on Tuesday said Hifjur Rahman was caught near the Assam-Meghalaya border after the convict apparently returned from Bangladesh. Mahatta said Rahman snatched the gun of a policeman accompanying him and fired.

Mahatta said Rahman was repeatedly warned and eventually shot dead in self-defence. He added Rahman was taken to the Silchar Medical College and Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. He added two constables were critically injured.

Police said Rahman and another murder convict, Deep Nunia, escaped from Silchar Central Jail by digging a tunnel through a toilet. Mahatta said they are searching for Nunia.

In 2013, Rahman was one of the five people convicted of murdering college student Ahrar Ahmed in Karimganj after kidnapping him for ransom in 2011. Nunia was arrested in 2018 for allegedly killing a suspected thief and keeping his body in a septic tank.

The Assam Police have drawn flak for a series of “encounters”, a term often used for extrajudicial killings.

In December 2021, lawyer Arif Jwadder filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Gauhati high court for an independent inquiry into the alleged extra-judicial killings since May 2021. Jwadder demanded a Central Investigation Agency inquiry or a Special Investigation Team probe into the encounters. The high court in January disposed of the case.

Four people have since been killed in police “encounters” in Assam.