Assam: Four ULFA militants killed

Four militants of the banned outfit United Liberation Front of Assom were killed in a joint operation by the Army and the police in Sibsagar district of Assam early on Saturday morning.

Acting on a tip-off about the ultras having put up in a house at Naphuk Naharani village after threatening the inmates at gunpoint, the security forces cordoned off the area at around 2.30 am, official sources said.

The militants fired at the security forces, and they retaliated by killing four of them on the spot, the sources said.

None of the inmates of the house were injured as they were forcibly confined to a room by the ultras, they said.

All the four belonged to the ULFA's 28th Battalion. Two of them were identified as Ranju Hazarika and Pratik Gogoi, the sources said, adding two others hailed from the Majuli river island.

An AK 56 rifle with 16 rounds of ammunition, a pistol, four grenades, a mobile phone and expenditure slips of the outfit in several envelopes addressed to one 'Sergeant Major' Ram Singh were recovered, they added.