In a major breakthrough, the forest guards on Thursday shot dead at least two rhino poachers deep inside the Kaziranga National Park of Assam. The park officials said that a gang of nearly five to six poachers had entered the park with an obvious objective to kill rhinos. “The forest guards intercepted them near Diphalu anti-poaching camp located in the Burhapahar forest range of the park,” said park officials adding that on being challenged, the poachers opened fire on the forest guards who in retaliatory fire shot dead at least two of them. “Others managed to escape. The forest guards recovered a .303 rifle from the slain poachers,” the park officials said. Meanwhile, the state government has constituted a task force comprising senior police officers and forest officials to check the poaching of rhinos in Kaziranga. Assam forest minister Rockybul Hussain said that the task force has already been notified to take effective steps to deal with the problem of poaching. (Source : The Asian Age)