From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: About 1300 Army personnel (13 columns) were pressed into action in violence-ravaged Kokrajhar, Chirang districts in Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and Dhubri districts of Assam on Wednesday.
The army on Wednesday staged a flag march in Assam’s Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) as there was no let-up in tension with three more bodies recovered from Chirang district and five villages set on fire. Police claimed the situation had improved in Kokrajhar and Dhubri districts.
The death toll in the current spell communal violence went up to 38 so far with the killing of three more persons by armed miscreants and recovery of three more bodies in Chirang district, an official source informed.
Shoot at sight order was issued in Chirang district while situation in Kokrajhar district was stated to be improving a bit. Union Joint Secretary, Home (N-E Affairs) Sambhu Singh told the media in Kokrajhar that there was slight improvement in the situation in the violence-affected areas. He, however, admitted that reports of sporadic incidents of violence were still pouring in.
The official commented that had there been early deployment of the Army on the day the violence broke out, the situation would have been much better now.
He informed that as on date 44 companies of central paramilitary forces had been deployed in the riot hit areas and hoped that the situation would be brought under control soon. He said more forces were on the way.
Meanwhile, despite deployment of forces , violence still spread to new areas in Chirang district in the early hours on Wednesday where more villages were burnt and three persons were shot dead by armed raiders.
Curfew was relaxed for four hours in the morning at Kokrajhar town since 8 A.M. on Wednesday.
State Cabinet ministers Rakibul Hussain and his colleagues Nilamoni Sen Deka and Siddique Ahmed claiming that the situation would be brought under control in a few days, called upon all concerned to stop blaming anyone at this critical juncture for the orgy of violence.
The minister stated that it was the time for taking confidence building measures. The minister further ruled out involvement of infiltrators from Bangladesh behind the violence as alleged by BTC chief executive member Hagrama Mohilary.
TRAIN SERVICES PARTIALLY RESTORED
With the deployment of additional four companies of Railway Protection Security Force (RPSF) , a few passenger and goods trains that had remained stranded in New Jalpaiguri (NJP) Railway Station in North Bengal started onward journey to Assam at 3 P.M. on Wednesday.
Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) spokesman S S Hajong informed that at least three trains including two Rajdhani Express trains resumed onward journey from the NJP station .
He said there was additional deployment of RPSF men along the violence-affected stretch between Gossaingaon and Kokrajhar railway station.
He said decision about resumption of normal train service would be taken after proper assessment of the situation at the ground and available security arrangement. (With inputs from IANS)