PTI, GUWAHATI: Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi claimed Wednesday he was under pressure from the previous NDA government at the Centre to continue with the "secret killings", a practice "rampant" during his predecessor Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's tenure.

The BJP rubbished the allegation as "baseless" and accused the veteran Congress leader of doing "divisive politics", while Mahanta hit back, insisting it was under the Congress rule that extrajudicial killings started in the state.

Gogoi, who helmed the state for 15 years from 2001 to 2016, claimed Lal Krishna Advani, who was then the union home minister, wanted to send former Punjab police chief K P S Gill, largely credited with crushing militancy in the northern state, to Assam as governor to quell insurgency. "We were pressured to continue the secret killings, but we did not do it.  When I took over (in 2001), the BJP

wanted the secret killings to continue and Advani wanted to send KPS Gill as the governor for this reason," Gogoi said.

He claimed it was because of the stiff resistance by his government that Gill, an IPS officer of Assam and Meghalaya cadre, was not sent to the northeastern state.