Guwahati: Amid the directive of the Gauhati High Court to preserve the bodies of three Hmar youths killed by Assam Police in an encounter on July 17, the Hmar Women Association, a civil body of the Hmar women community, has launched movement demanding a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the alleged extra-judicial killing of youths by police to what they are calling “fake-encounter”.Two women’s organisations of Manipur’s Kuki and Hmar communities took out a rally at Haflong in Assam’s Dima Hasao district, demanding an independent judicial probe into the killing of three Hmar youths in a ‘police encounter’ in neighbouring Cachar district on July 17.Members of Kuki Women’s Association and Hmar Women’s Association gathered at Haflong’s Lal field holding placards and marched through important intersections of the town before culminating the rally before the DC’s office.They also submitted a memorandum to Union home minister Amit Shah, requesting the commissioning of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the alleged extra-judicial actions by the Assam Police in connection with the death of three Hmar individuals on July 17.In a related development the Gauhati High Court ordered that the bodies of youths killed in the encounter should be allowed to be kept in the morgue of Silchar Medical College Hospital till the next hearing on Friday (July 26). The families told the court that the police had asked them to take the bodies by Wednesday. The court issued the order after family members of the victims filed a writ petition alleging that it was a case of “extra judicial execution.” The petition was filed by Siemthang Hmar, son of L. Remsang Hmar, Lalthavel Hmar, son of Khuonga Hmar and Lalchunghnung, son of Tlangminhthang. The three families had on July 19 lodged an FIR in Lakhipur police station in Cachar district seeking an investigation into the incident.The petitioners told the High Court that the three were arrested at around 4.30 pm on July 16 from Ganganagar Part-VI area under Lakhipur police station in Cachar district by six police personnel but they were taken out in the early hours of July 17 and were killed in an extra judicial execution. Two deceased hailed from Cachar district and one were from Kuki-dominated Churachandpur district in conflict-hit Manipur. The petitioners also sought the High court’s directive for conducting a post-mortem of the bodies by doctors outside Assam. After hearing the petition, the High Court issued notices to Assam government and police and asked the government counsel to collect the post-mortem report from police, if already done, and submit it to the court in a sealed cover by the next hearing on Friday.
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