A day after he was accused of attacking a young girl and killing her cousin, a youth whose age has not been specified was killed by the police in Nalbari, western Assam on Monday (June 1, 2026) afternoon.

District officials said Ashik Ali alias Roz was shot dead after he allegedly tried to snatch the service rifle of a policeman and flee. The incident happened on a sandbar, or river island, near Mukalmua town, more than 50 km west of Guwahati.

Nalbari’s Superintendent of Police, Bibekananda Das, said his team was told that the youth had fled to a sandbar on Sunday (May 31, 2026) after attacking an 18-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin, Madhurjya Barman, with a sharp weapon.

The two teenagers, travelling on a scooter, were attacked about 300 metres from the girl’s home. While Barman, a leader of the local unit of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), was declared dead at the Nalbari Medical College and Hospital, the girl is undergoing treatment for serious injuries at the more advanced Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.

Snatched weapon

“We found the murder weapon (a machete) and were taking him away when he snatched a self-loading rifle from one of our men and fired four rounds. The police retaliated, and a bullet hit his chest,” Mr. Das said.

Ali was rushed to a local hospital, where he was declared dead.

The girl’s mother said Ali had been stalking her daughter, a Class 12 student, and was harassing the family to agree to a marriage. “He promised not to bother her again after we threatened to lodge a police complaint. We never imagined he would attack her, killing Madhurjya in the process,” she said.

Local Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and former minister Jayanta Mallabaruah said the Nalbari incident highlighted a “disturbing trend” that society could not afford to ignore.

Fourth ‘encounter’

“Let me assure the people of Assam that under the leadership of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, there will be absolutely no compromise in cases involving crimes against women, organised deception, or incidents that threaten the peace and harmony of our society,” he said.

This was the fourth “encounter” between the security forces and alleged criminals and extremists in Assam since May 24, when two people who allegedly collected extortion money for the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) were shot and injured by police in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar district.

Khairul Ali, one of the prime accused in an April 24 armed robbery in central Assam’s Nagaon district, was killed in an encounter on May 25 while allegedly trying to break into a house. A doctor’s wife was killed in the robbery.

On May 31, Akkas Ali, a 35-year-old man arrested for sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl, was shot in the knee while allegedly trying to flee from police custody in Chhaygaon, near Guwahati.