Wednesday, August 17 2005 15:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Guwahati: The main opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Assam has also rejected the Justice (retd) J N Sharma Commission findings on 'secret killings' allegedly during the AGP rule and instead demanded a CBI inquiry into the 'secret killings' since 1991.

AGP spokesman Jagadish Bhuyan told a press conference in Guwahati today (Aug 17, 2005) said that the party was not satisfied with the findings as only six cases of `secret killings' were investigated by the Commission when there were several other such incidents in the state since 1991.

"The Commission failed to find out the secret killers. So the CBI should be entrusted with the job of investigation. Inquiry commissions cannot hold the guilty to trial. Only if CBI conducts the probe can legal proceedings commence immediately against the guilty", Bhuyan pointed out.

AGP vice president Dilip Saikia said that "Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's public announcement at the Independence day official function here that the families of the victims of the secret killings would be paid Rs three lakh each. Then let him make the list of victims public".

Yesterday (Aug 16, 2005) both the Assam government and the influential All Assam Students Union had separately rejected the findings of the Justice Sharma Commission 'as there were glaring discrepancies in the findings'.

The AASU, too, rejected the report as 'being biased and failing to identify the culprits and those responsible for such heinous crimes".

The Students Union urged the Government to punish all those responsible for such acts within five months.