Jorhat, Oct. 15: A sharpshooter from Nagaland was critically injured after he was attacked by a rhino at Orang National Park last month.

This came to light yesterday following the interrogation of a poacher, Rustom Ali, by the forest staff.

Rustom hails from Lahorighat village in Morigaon district and had worked in a soft drink company at Goa before taking to poaching.

Rustom had surrendered at an army camp at Dokmoka in Karbi Anglong on Thursday after security forces and forest guards put pressure on his family. He also deposited a .303 rifle and 10 rounds of ammunition and was handed over to the forest department yesterday at Tezpur.

Rustom, along with the shooter from Nagaland, identified as Laltha, and two other poachers — Faizul Haq and Kasim Ali — had entered the park on September 11 and shot and injured a female rhino.

The group also engaged in a gun battle with forest guards the next morning where Faizul and Kasim got killed while Rustom and Laltha managed to escape. “Laltha was critically injured after he was attacked by a rhino while fleeing. However, he managed to escape along with Rustom. Laltha subsequently fled to Dimapur,” the official said, quoting Rustom’s statement.

Rustom also revealed that Laltha was a regular visitor to Assam and had shot dead several rhinos at both Orang and Kaziranga National Parks.

“We have Laltha’s phone number but it is switched off. We are keeping in touch with the mobile phone company to track him down,” the official said.

The divisional forest officer of Orang, Sushil K. Daila, said Rustom had revealed that they entered the park around 1am on September 10 through the southern boundary near Ramkong anti-poaching camp, using a country boat.

“The group had seven members but only four of them entered the park while the three returned after dropping them off on the Brahmaputra riverbank near the park,” Daila said, quoting Rustom’s statement.

Daila said Rustom had named Md Nur Islam of Morigaon as the mastermind behind the attempt and he was offered Rs 1 lakh for the job.

“We have already started an operation to apprehend Nur Islam,” the official said.

Daila said it was a known fact that sharpshooters from Nagaland and Manipur are hired by poachers to kill rhinos in the national parks of the state.

“There are instances of shooters from Nagaland and Manipur getting killed in encounters at the rhino habitats of Assam earlier,” he said.

Orang and Kaziranga have witnessed gun battles between forest guards and poachers last month where at least five poachers were killed.

Three poachers were also arrested and arms recovered from their possession.