Suspected timber poacher shot dead in gunfight with forest guards in Assam’s Kokrajhar

Kokrajhar DFO Mustafa Ali Ahmed said when the forest personnel approached the group, they opened fire, leading the guards to fire retaliatory shots

A suspected timber poacher was shot dead in a gunfight with forest guards in Assam’s Raimona National Park on Tuesday afternoon, officials said on Wednesday.

A group of angry villagers later vandalised a forest office over the incident.

According to Kokrajhar divisional forest officer (DFO) Mustafa Ali Ahmed, the incident took place around 4pm on Tuesday in the Athiabari range of the national park, when a forest patrol team spotted four to five people allegedly felling large trees deep inside the protected forest.

Ahmed said when the forest personnel approached the group, they opened fire. The guards retaliated, prompting the group to flee from the area. The forest team later recovered a body from the spot.

Kokrajhar superintendent of police (SP) Akshat Garg told HT on Wednesday that police recovered the body from the site on Wednesday morning and sent it to Kokrajhar Medical College for postmortem examination. Police identified the deceased as Phungkha Basumatary, who was in his early 20s.

The DFO said the deceased was a resident of a nearby village in Kokrajhar. As word about his death got around, some people from his village vandalised the forest office and a government vehicle on Wednesday.

Officials said the circumstances leading to the exchange of fire and Basumatary’s death are being investigated,

Police said the incident took place in an area where forest authorities conduct regular patrols to check illegal timber felling and other offences.

According to the forest department’s preliminary account, the other members of the group fled.

“He was a regular offender and was wanted in multiple cases of timber smuggling. They are also involved in poaching animals in the forest using firearms,” the DFO said.

“We are investigating the matter and an official complaint will be lodged with the police soon,” he said. However, the police said they are not aware of any incident of vandalism.