Several organisations in Nalbari district in Lower Assam have called a 24-hour bandh on Thursday to protest the killing of five youths in Shantipur Mohinagaon village under Dhamdhama police station on Saturday night. The bandh has been called by five groups including Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS), a human rights group considered to be a frontal organisation of the ULFA.

While the Army claimed that the five youths were ULFA militants and were killed during a raid, MASS and four other groups have claimed that the victims were innocent persons killed with the intention of registering “success” against militants.

Meanwhile, security forces on Tuesday gunned down two more youths in another ‘encounter’ inside the Panbari reserved forest, part of the Kaziranga National Park.