Locals say it was a cold-blooded murder

Bara, August 30;

A cadre of the Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha led by Jayakrishna Goit (JTMM-G) was killed in an encounter with the police at Hardiya Charmohana this morning, police said.

Local residents, however, told a press conference in Kalaiya that the police shot 45-year-old Jamuna Singh in cold blood after he surrendered.

A joint team of the Armed Police Force and the civilian police clashed with JTMM-G cadres in the morning and Singh was shot dead, Bara superintendent of police Shyam Bahadur Khatri told a press conference organised by the Bara district police office today.

Three 12 bore rifles, one ordinary rifle, two home-made pistols, one American pistol, 45 rounds of bullets, seven used cartridges, 87 socket bombs, one SMG magazine, eight bags, one mobile phone set and some documents confiscated from the JTMM cadres were displayed in the press meet.

The locals said that Singh called his friends from his mobile telephone and told them that he had surrendered. He urged his mates to help secure his release, one of the men, who said he received Singh’s phone call, said. He further said that local human rights activists immediately telephoned the police, but the latter denied having any knowledge of the surrender. A team of the APF, civilian police and masked men raided houses of a dozen local people at 3:00 am, the time when police claimed to have shot Singh, the locals told the press conference.

Although the locals said that 32-year-old Bhushan Singh and Nagendra Prasad were arrested from the site of the clash, police refused to confirm the arrests.