Guwahati: A pall of gloom hung over Mazirgaon on Saturday as the body of Bhaskar Kalita reached home.

Mazirgaon, 5km west of LGBI Airport here, is the native village of Kalita, who was killed in an encounter with militants in Upper Assam's Tinsukia district on Friday.

Kalita is survived by his wife Sangita, a junior assistant in the special branch of Assam police, and their twins, a daughter and a son.

"Our children started schooling this year. I had been repeatedly requesting higher officials to transfer Bhaskar nearer to Guwahati. However, it never happened. Now what will happen to my children?" Sangita wondered.

Kalita was appointed officer-in-charge of Bordumsa police station earlier this year.

Sangita alleged that Kalita had always been posted in remote locations because he would not plead with higher-ups for a better posting. She said Kalita was supposed to go on leave from Saturday to attend his cousin's wedding.

Kalita's body arrived by air ambulance from Dibrugarh around 3.15pm. At the airport, former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, power minister Tapan Gogoi, additional directors-general of police Pallav Bhattacharya and Mukesh Agarwal, Guwahati police commissioner Hiren Chandra Nath and inspector-general of police Subhrajyoti Hazarika paid homage to Kalita. He was accorded a state funeral at Mazirgaon after senior police officers paid homage.

Ulfa (I) "commander-in-chief" Paresh Barua condoled Kalita's death and said he fell victim in the "war between Indian forces and Ulfa".

"Our cadres did not shoot him intentionally. He was with a team of CRPF personnel, which was trying to attack one of our groups last evening. Kalita was injured when our cadres opened fire for their own safety and succumbed later on. I confer my condolence to the family of Kalita," Barua told a television channel over phone on Saturday.

"Ulfa has stopped attacking Assam policemen for the past five years. These people are not our enemies. This was a decision taken in the meeting of the Ulfa central committee. However, Friday's incident is accidental," he added.

Asserting that "all extremists and antisocial elements would be severely dealt with", Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said his government would not tolerate any incident affecting peace and harmony. He also directed the DGP to take steps to arrest of the culprits at the earliest and intensify operations against militants.