Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday reiterated his demand for a NIA or CBI probe into killing of nine Karbi tribe people in Nagaland in the last week of December last to find out the real culprits behind the killings.
The bodies were recovered near Chumukedima inside Nagaland bordering Karbi Anglong hill district in Assam. The killings has been construed as retaliation to attack on Rengma Naga villages in Karbi Anglong on December 27 last by militants belonging to Karbi People’s Liberation Tiger (KPLT).
Gogoi’s repeated demand for a NIA or CBI probe into the killing of nine Karbi youths inside Nagaland is significant given the claim of Karbi Anglong Peace Forum (KAPF), an NGO from Karbi Anglong, that there was a ‘third force’ behind the violence that shattered the age-old bonding between Karbi tribe and Rengma Nagas living in Karbi Anglong.
A newly-formed militant group called Naga Rengma Hill Protection Force (NRHPF) has already claimed to have killed the nine Karbi youths as a retaliation to killing of Rengma Naga villagers in Karbi Anglong by KPLT militants. Security sources suspected that a known Naga rebel group in truce might have been backing the newly-formed NRHPF.
Gogoi on Wednesday informed that out of the 3600 violence-displaced people from both Karbi and Rengma Naga communities, 600 had already returned to their homes. He hoped that rest of the relief camp inmates would soon go back home as the situation had improved in the violence-affected areas.
Meanwhile, a joint meeting between the Naga civil society organisations led by Naga Hoho and the Karbi civil societies led by Karbi Anglong Peace Forum held at Diphu in Karbi Anglong on Tuesday appealed to all the people of Karbi Anglong, particularly the KPLT and the NRHPF, to maintain peace at any cost.
The Joint Meeting demands that the enquiry being ordered into the killing of nine Karbi youths in Nagaland should also include the killing and arson incidents in Karbi Anglong. The meeting was of the opinion that a third force was involved in the killings and arson both in Dimapur and Karbi Anglong.
The meeting demanded that the third force must be identified and eliminated once and for all and the ex-gratia payments announced by the Government of Assam must be given to families of the victims of both the Rengma Nagas and the Karbis adequately and without partiality within January 31, 2014.
