Guwahati, June 14: Assam government spokesperson Himanta Biswa Sarma this afternoon alleged that AGP was trying to divert the peoples’ attention on the secret killing issue by targeting him.

Sarma said the Congress government did not wind up Justice Shafiqul Haque inquiry commission set up by the AGP-led government but only enlarged it from kidnapping to attempted murder by secret killers.

“The AGP leaders are only misleading the people by targeting me on the issue,” he said.

Four AGP general secretaries, Durgadas Boro, Ramendra Narayan Kalita, Kamala Kalita, Keshab Mahanta and publicity secretary Manoj Saikia, yesterday challenged Dispur to punish those responsible for the secret killings that took place between 1998 and 2001. They even accused the government of withdrawing two criminal cases against Sarma.

Sarma quoted from the K.N. Saikia report of how former chief minister Prafulla Kumar had allegedly demanded Rs 1 crore from a Sulfa leader, T.B. Talukdar, who was killed two months later.

However, Sarma did not spell out any specific step to take the CID inquiry into the 17 secret killing cases to its logical end.

Even the Saikia commission said it would be difficult to probe the cases primarily because no forensic examination was carried out, Sarma added.

Asked why action has not been taken against the police officials investigating the case, Sarma said the probe was on.

This was the sixth news conference, three each by Dispur and AGP, which touched on the secret killing issue.