GUWAHATI: Two persons were shot dead and at least seven policemen were injured in a clash when Assam Police were carrying out a drive to evict encroachers from a large swath of land that belong to a state framing project at Garukhuti in Dholpur area in Darrang district of Assam on Thursday.
“The police were given a task to evict the encroachers and they were carrying out their work when they were attacked by people with stones and sharp weapons. There was firing from the police. The eviction drive will continue,” Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The eviction is aimed at starting community farming by removing encroachment and the first phase was done on Monday when 800 households illegally occupying about 4500 bigha of land were evicted and four illegal religious structures and a private institution.
On Thursday when police arrived in the area for evicting remaining households, the encroachers attacked them and in retaliation police had to resort to firing after tear gas firing failed to stop the encroachers.
The cabinet had earlier decided to free this government land of the illegal encroachers and convert it to a farming project.