12-hour dawn-to-dusk shutdown hits normal life
Guwahati : Days after Bodo militants massacred innocent tribals in Assam, the Centre has decided to launch an armed operation named ‘’All Out’ and deploy over 9,000 army soldiers and paramilitary troop.
They are on the ground on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border to scrub down militants of the NDFB (Songbijit) group accused of massacring over 78 tribals in two Assam districts on December 23. As per press release, Army has received full command of the two-tier operation ‘All Out’, presently, on in Sonitpur in Assam. As said by sources, there are at least 8,000-9,000 boots on the ground. Army has even pushed choppers into action to impede militants from escaping into Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Three units of the Assam Rifles have been recalled, along with 5,000 paramilitary personnel. Assam Police will be there on civilian protection duty. The Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag on Friday discussed with Union Home Minister Rajnath on the operation.
“The meeting was about security in Assam. We will intensify our operations there. I cannot give more information,” Army chief General D S Suhag told reporters after meeting the minister.
The Songbijit Brahma group of the NDFB on Tuesday killed over 78 innocent people, including women and children, in an almost concurrent attack on adivasi settlers in four areas spread in two districts of Assam-Kokrajhar and Sonitpur.
“We cannot overlook it as a simple militant act. It is an act of terror. Both state and central governments will deal with it the way terrorism is dealt with,” Rajnath Singh had said.
Meanwhile, a 12-hour dawn-to-dusk shutdown on Friday called to denounce the killings affected normal life across Assam, reports PTI.
Adivasis took to the streets in large numbers with bows and arrows to protest the Dec 23 killings blamed on the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
Streets wore a deserted look during the bandh and most of the commercial establishments, educational institutions and others remained closed.
There were also reports of stray incidents of violence from different parts of the state as bandh supporters blocked vehicular traffic at many places and damaged public property, forcing police to resort to lathi charge in many places, including Guwahati. Two city buses run by the Assam State Transport Corporation were damaged by the bandh supporters at Bhangagarh and Christian Basti areas of Guwahati, police said.
Police resorted to lathi charge at the city’s Fancy bazaar area, where people came out in huge numbers to enforce the bandh. No one was, however, injured during the bandh, police said, adding that some of the bandh supporters have been arrested and released after the bandh ended.
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Mamata to visit evacuees’ camp
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will visit relief camps set up in Alipurduar area for people fleeing neighbouring lower Assam districts in the wake of the attacks by NDFB(S) militants.
“The chief minister is leaving for Bagdogra by plane on Friday and will go to Kumargram in Alipurduar tomorrow where the relief camps have been set up by the state government,” CMO sources told PTI. Banerjee had said on Thursday that her government was making necessary arrangements to help to adivasis coming to the state from Assam for shelter while expressing grief over the killings. “The brutal mass killing of adivasis in Assam by armed extremists has deeply saddened me. I strongly condemn the heinous it,” Banerjee had said in a post on Facebook.
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Mithun Dey
