Two forest guards and one policeman sustained severe injuries after they were attacked by the owner of an illegal sawmill on Monday in Hojai district of Assam.
The incident took place at Dakshin Nawbali area under Murajhar PS of the district.
The injured persons have been identified as Suruj Ali and Piyar-Uddin and Assam Police Battalion (APBn) personnel Bitupan Nath.
They were rushed to the nearby hospital for medical assistance. The APBn personnel, however, was later shifted to Nagaon’s BP Civil Hospital for further treatment.
Locals informed that the incident took place when acting on a tip-off the forest guards along with police went to evict the illegal sawmill.
“When we reached to evict the mill, the situation turned violent and we had to fire eight rounds of bullets to bring the situation under control,” police said.
“People pelted stones on us and in the process three of our men were injured,” they added.
“They even tried to set our vehicle on fire. However, we somehow managed to flee from the place,” the police added.
Till the filing of this report, no person was arrested and the police are investigating the incident.