Dimapur, November 1 (MExN): Amidst the already panicky situation created in Dimapur in the aftermath of the serial bomb blasts in Assam, a businessman was shot at and critically injured in the head at around 5:35 pm this evening by unidentified miscreants near Central Plaza, in the heart of the city. Citizens in Dimapur received the news with a shock given the fact that most people now live in the grip of fear and the uncertainty of a fragile situation existing in Dimapur, which has witnessed intense factional violence over the last few months.
Today’s shooting incident has taken place in the heart of Dimapur inspite of security arrangements being beefed up during the last two days. The victim, Moklisur Rahman (37 years and hailing from Kamrimganj in Assam), who owns a shop near the Central Plaza was returning home after closing his shop when two persons accosted him and fired two shots, one in the right shoulder and the other in the head, sources close to the victim disclosed. The source said the victim was with another person during the incident, the other person is yet to be traced.
The victim has been admitted in Faith Hospital and is presently under very critical condition. Curiously, Dimapur police have ruled out extortion as the motive for the crime “as the assailants accosted the victim and shot him on the streets and not in his shop”. Notwithstanding this strange logic, as usual “further investigation is on”. However, Dimapur city of late has become a hot place for businessmen who have to face frequent daylight robberies by armed miscreants “claiming” to be underground cadres.
A businesswoman in Duncan Basti this evening disclosed that three persons came to her paan shop on October 31; while the two stayed outside, one of the miscreants entered the shop and after brandishing a pistol took away Rs 3000-4000 and some cigarettes from the shop. The incident has not been reported to the police, the shop owner said. “The other shop over there has also been robbed in a similar manner,” she said pointing to a butcher’s shop. Gunmen pointed a pistol at the butcher’s shop owner and took about Rs 7000 from the cash drawer, other residents in the area said. Police also remain by and large hapless in dealing with such crimes as victims do not report such crimes out of fear. More pronounced is that, often times they have no faith in the police as earlier occasions have come to establish a trend.
“What can the police do, by the time they come the crime is already has already been committed and the perpetrators also ready fled,” said a shop owner. Nonetheless, with frequent crimes happening in Dimapur and also the bomb blasts happening in other states, the people of Dimapur are an apprehensive citizen fearing the worst like the revisit of the October 2 bomb blast in Hong Kong market and the Railway station that happened in 2004.
