Assam police made the first arrest in connection with the killing of five Bangla-speaking people by suspected militants of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA-Independent faction) of Tinsukia district in the northeastern Indian state.

The arrestee, an alleged person for the United Liberation Front of Assam (Independent), was identified as Bhabananda Gogoi alias Jintu alias Diklai from a place not far from the site of the killing, Assam's Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Mukesh Agrawal said. 

Gogoi, who was nabbed yesterday, has been taken to five-day police remand, the police official said adding he was also arrested in May for carrying an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) but subsequently got bail.

ULFA(I), however, in a media statement denied any involvement in the killing.

Tinsukia Superintendent of Police Prasanta Sagar Changmai said Gogoi was apprehended following intelligence pointing his involvement in the killing as he allegedly provided logistics support to the killers.

Shyamlal Biswas (60), brothers Ananta (18) and Abhinash Biswas (25), Subal Das (60) and Dhananjay Namasudra (23) were killed on Thursday night. While Shyamlal ran a grocery store and Ananta a mobile recharge and photocopy store; the other three were farmers. Shadeb Namashudra (17) survived since he fell into the stream and the militants assumed him dead.

A senior Tinsukia police officer said the manner of the killing on Thursday night had similarities with the December 2017 killing of the president of a local village defence party (VDP) and his son – by ULFA(Independent) in the district.