London, August 08 2009: Several Indian police commandos have been suspended after an extraordinary series of photographs were published apparently showing the killing of an unarmed man in the north-eastern city of Imphal.

Authorities in the state of Manipur have promised a judicial inquiry into what appears to be a "fake encounter" - a tactic used by Indian police to dispose of suspects who they do not believe will be dealt with by the courts.

The publication of the photographs comes days after Human Rights Watch published a highly-critical report into the conduct of the Indian police in which it highlighted the use of extra-judicial killings.

The pictures, published in the respected Tehelka news magazine, appear to show the sequence of events leading up to the shooting dead of a former militant, Chungkam Sanjit, and the aftermath of the encounter.

The body of a pregnant woman is also shown; police later claimed she had been killed in crossfire with Chungkam.

According to the official police account of the incident, which took place on 23 July, police were frisking people in the tourist city's Khwairamband Keithel market when they spotted a suspicious youth and challenged him to stop.

In the police version, Chungkam pulled out a gun and fled, firing into the crowd.

They claimed he was finally cornered in a pharmacy and was killed after refusing to surrender and opening fire with a 9mm Mauser pistol, which was purportedly recovered from his body.

But the pictures - taken by a local photographer who has not been named by the magazine for his own protection - appear to tell a rather different story.

Chungkam is first seen standing next to the pharmacy alongside a number of heavily armed commandos.

Far from opening fire and fleeing, he instead appears calm and is seen walking away with one of the commandos.

There is no sign of any weapon in his hands.

Another picture shows a commando drawing a pistol and Chungkam is then seen being hustled into the pharmacy.

In the last frame in which he is still alive, he still shows no sign of resistance.

The next picture shows him being dragged out by his feet and he is then dumped in the back of a pickup truck.

The dead woman's body is also partly visible in a later frame.

In another notorious recent case police were accused of killing two Muslim men in Delhi last September in the aftermath of a series of bomb attacks in the Indian capital.

But despite many questions being raised about the police account of the incident, the National Human Rights Commission last month cleared police of any wrongdoing.

Earlier this week a report by the New York-based group Human Rights Watch accused Indian police of widespread malpractice, including the use of torture and extra-judicial killing.

The report claimed one officer told a researcher he had been ordered to commit an "encounter" killing.

"I am looking for my target," the officer allegedly told HRW.

"I fear being put in jail, but if I don't do it, I'll lose my position." Last night Meenakshi Ganguly, HRW's spokeswoman in India, said there had been a history of extra-judicial killing in Manipur which had to be tackled by the central government.

Ibobi Singh, chief minister of Manipur, yesterday said he would order a judicial inquiry into the killing of Chungkam.

The authorities in Manipur imposed a curfew to contain violent protests after the pictures were published.

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