Guwahati: Tension gripped upper Assam's Tinsukia district as thousands of people blocked national highways and railway lines on Thursday to protest the killing of an "innocent temporary worker" of a tea garden, Buddheswar Moran in "an encounter" by the Army late on Saturday night.

The protestors refused to withdraw the blockade despite the state government and the Army ordering separate probes into the circumstances leading to the death of Moran.

They alleged that Moran was killed in a "fake encounter" at Laopatty village under Doomdooma police station of upper Assam by the troops of 6 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles.

Inspector-General of Police (Law and Order) D.K. Pathak said that his body was cremated later on Thursday night. Protestors initially refused to accept the body for cremation.

General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Dinjan-based 2 Mountain Division of the Army, Major General N.C. Marwah went to the blockade site on Wednesday and announced the institution of a court of inquiry by the Army into the circumstances leading to the death of Moran. He also said that the probe would be completed fast and action taken against the guilty if any lapses were found. The Army claimed that Moran was associated with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and alleged that he was carrying a pistol, ammunition and explosives.

The state government has entrusted the one man probe to Upper Assam Commissioner Hemanta Narzary, who has been asked to submit his report within 30 days.

In another incident, which occurred on Thursday, four persons were injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by a suspected woman cadre of the ULFA exploded at a medicine shop near a nursing home in upper Assam's Sivasagar town. Police said the woman left a packet at the medicine shop and the IED exploded shortly after she had left.

Earlier in the day, the Army recovered a powerful IED weighing about 5 kg near the Sivasagar railway station and defused it.

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