Assam has seen a spate of controversial encounters after Chief Minister Himanta Sarma came to power. The Chief Minister has toned down his rhetoric saying that police should not target innocents. This comes days after the state government filed an affidavit in the Gauhati High Court where it disclosed, for the first time, how many have been killed in the encounters. The only encounter probed by the state government has implicated the police which activists says bolsters claims that a large number of the encounters are extrajudicial killings.