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Former Arunachal MP killed : Police see NSCN(IM) hand |
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Former Arunachal Pradesh MP Wangcha Rajkumar was killed by unidentified gunmen on Dec. 23 while he was playing a badminton in a community hall near his Deomali residence. The sub-division¬al officer of Deomali, S.C. Debnath, was one of the witnesses to the killing.
“I was outside the community hall with three of my col¬leagues. It was around 7.30 pm and we saw two masked gunmen with automatic weapons arriving. They overpowered Rajkumar’s guard and driver. One of them entered the hall, while another guarded the entrance. We heard gunshots and ran helter-skelter. The gunman and his accomplice fled after pumping several bullets into the former MP,” Debnath said.
Rajkumar’s brother arrived at the scene of crime soon after and took him to a primary health centre, where he was declared dead at 8.10 pm.
The slain leader, also a former Congress Minister, took three bullets on his body, one of which pierced the liver. Investigators said the killing was “well-planned.”
Reports say he may have been assassinated for once hobnob¬bing with the Khaplang faction of the NSCN, much to the annoyance of the rival Isak-Muivah group. Rajkumar distanced himself from the Khaplang group only around 2000, when the outfit began to lose ground in Tirap district and the NSCN (I-M) became the dominant force in the area.
Police also hinted at the NSCN(I-M)’s involvement in the killing, the first of a political leader in a state that does not have a homegrown militant group but has become the playground of outfits from Assam and Nagaland.
Tirap superintendent of police C.K. Mein said some youths claiming to be members of the NSCN(I-M) had threatened to elim¬inate Rajkumar a few months ago. He also admitted that the police had received information about a plot to kill the flamboyant politician.
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