Nagaon, Sept. 17: Suspected Karbi militants last night gunned down helpers of two brick-laden trucks on Assam University’s Diphu campus.

Bharat Gogoi, 22, Mangal Borua, 25 and some labourers were offloading bricks from the trucks at the construction site 7km from Diphu, the headquarters of Karbi Anglong.

Additional superintendent of police (headquarters), Nityananda Goswami, said three militants sneaked under cover of darkness.

“They waylaid Gogoi and Borua and gunned them down,” Goswami said. The two were residents of Bokajan subdivision of the district.

Police recovered their bullet-riddled bodies from the university campus this morning. “We do not want to disclose the name of the group as investigations are on,” Goswami said.

The police suspect that the two were killed after the contractor refused to shell out money demanded by the group.

The All Assam Students’ Union, Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad and organisations representing Hindi and Bengali-speaking people blocked National Highway 39 from 5pm to 7.30pm today. The Adivasis also joined the protest. The blockade disrupted traffic on the highway connecting Assam with Nagaland. It was lifted only after the SDO promised to look into their demands.

A procession was taken out with the bodies following the post-mortem.