Nagaon, July 2: Police gunned down six dacoits in Hojai subdivision of Assam’s Nagaon district last night.

Hojai subdivisional police officer Girin Medhi said the six were members of a group of 14, suspected to have been involved in dacoities in and around Nagaon for nearly a decade. All of them were armed and in fatigues.

The ambush was conducted by personnel of three police stations of the subdivision at Pamgaon, a minority-dominated village, 15km from Lanka, the headquarters of Hojai.

Lanka police station officer-in-charge Najrul Islam — who jointly led the operation with the officer-in-charge of Hojai police station, Siddartha Borua, and circle inspector of Doboka, Hem Kanta Neog, — said their team laid a trap on the route frequented by the group as its personnel moved to Pamgaon on foot.

“The dacoits were completely taken aback when they realised that they had been trapped. They started firing indiscriminately and we retaliated with equal force. Six of them were injured in the 20-minute exchange of fire. However, local doctors declared all of them brought dead,” Islam added.

The remaining eight fled in the darkness.

Three handmade guns, a revolver, two live ammunition, nine cartridges, two daggers, a torch and a bag with some dresses were recovered from the spot.

Medhi said none of the dacoits killed had been identified so far. “We suspect they were outsiders operating from Hojai since long.”

This is the third ambush on dacoits in the subdivision since January. One dacoit was killed in Lumding reserve forest and another in Doboka reserve forest.

Frequent robberies in the interiors of Hojai, specially inside Lumding and Doboka reserve forests, and Langting Mupa reserve forest in the neighbouring district of North Cachar Hills have been a cause of concern for long.

“However, tight security and frequent patrolling over the past few years have mitigated the problem to a large extent. We hope last night’s incident will end the problem,” a police source said.