Assam’s leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia on Tuesday moved the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to take cognisance of the “repeated violation of citizens’ rights by Assam police by shooting people under custody”.

More than 181 “extra-judicial shootings” by the police have claimed the lives of over 80 civilians and suspected criminals since 2021, he claimed.

The trigger for Saikia’s petition is the injury suffered by five youths, allegedly linked to the banned Ulfa(I), in police firing between Sunday and Monday. The five youths were shot in the leg by the police in three separate incidents — three in Tinsukia district, one each in Sivasagar and Kamrup districts — while trying to flee from custody. Their condition is stated to be stable.

Saikia has said in his two-page petition to the NHRC registrar (law) on Tuesday that “incidents of shooting suspected criminals in the leg, on the pretext of fleeing, have increased after Shri Himanta Biswa Sarma has taken charge as the Chief Minister of Assam, following his speech allowing police to shoot at the criminal on the leg.”

“As such, I would urge the commission to kindly take cognizance of the cases and take up the matter so that such act of extra-judicial shooting is prevented and make the one accountable who commits so, in the greater interest of humanity and to uphold the law of the land,” the petition states.

Sarma took over as chief minister in May 2021.

Another Opposition leader, Akhil Gogoi, has alleged that the youths were injured by the police in “fake encounters” and has called for an end to the practice.

This is not the first time that the Sarma-led BJP government in Assam has found itself under the scanner for extra-judicial shooting incidents involving the state police.

A Delhi-based lawyer had filed a PIL on December 21, 2021, in the Gauhati High Court, seeking an independent inquiry into the deaths and injuries caused in police action because the Supreme Court guidelines while probing the cases were allegedly not being followed.

The high court, however, junked the PIL, on January 28 this year on the ground that a probe was underway in 171 cases, including 56 deaths, due to police action. The lawyer had in his PIL claimed more than 80 “fake encounters” had taken place since May 2021.

Saikia’s petition said that “most often it is reported that the suspected criminals are shot at leg during a visit to the crime scene or place where the crime was committed and they try to flee by snatching their (police) weapons... without any counter struggle by the suspected offenders. So, in most cases, the shooting takes place while in custody.”

Saikia said there were provisions in existing law for police personnel to shoot in self-defence.