Unrest along Assam-Naga border continues
DiPHU: Continuing exchange of fire along the Assam-Nagaland border during an anti-encroachment operation in Doldoli Reserve Forest in Assam left a miscreant dead on Monday, said a senior police officer.
Gunmen from across the border along Assam’s Karbi Anglong district fired upon security personnel and workers engaged in the eviction operation forcing the police to retaliate and one person from Nagaland was killed, district Superintendent of Police M J Mahanta told PTI.
Positioning themselves from bunkers set up near an army camp in Nagaland in the Kasiram border outpost area, the miscreants fired from sophisticated weapons to prevent the eviction drive, Mahanta said.
An AK-series assault rifle and a pistol were recovered from the deceased, he said adding the rest of the people managed to flee. Meanwhile, DIG-Border, DIG-Central Western Range, district Deputy Commissioner and the SP held a meeting today on the border issue.
Meanwhile, DIG-Border, DIG-Central Western Range, district Deputy Commissioner and the SP held a meeting today on the border issue. There was heavy exchange of fire yesterday also in the encroached Doldoli Reserve Forest when a forest department personnel was killed and another official and a police constable injured when unidentified persons from Nagaland opened fire on them from sophisticated INSAS rifles, light machine guns and rocket launchers. Since January this year anti-socials had occupied several hundred hectares of the Reserve Forest and were periodically firing on security personnel at Sankertilla, Kasiram, Lahorijan and Rangapa BOP areas, Additional Superintendent of Police Nanda Singh said. Nine cases were registered in this connection at the Diphu Police Station and 55 persons arrested since then, he added. The situation in the disputed Dimapur-Karbi-Anglong (Nagaland – Assam) border continued to remain tense today as the exchange of firing continued, a day after the Assam Police and the Assam Forest Department launched an eviction operation on July 19.
According to official sources sporadic exchange of gunfire was reported throughout the day yesterday and today at Daldali Reserved forest, further heightening tensions.
Reports said the shootings were the result of a stand-off between the Assam Police and some armed people, who were evicted on Saturday last. The people had reportedly dug in, taking defensive positions during the night, after the Assam Police retreated following Saturday’s exercise.
The shootings started around 7:30 in the morning on Sunday and continued till 5:00 in the evening when the Assam Police personnel retreated as evening set in.
Meanwhile, the United Naga Tribes Association of Border Areas (UNTABA) has condemned, what it termed as the ‘inaction’ of the Nagaland State Government, the Border Magistrates and the District Administration of Dimapur for ‘failing to provide security to our people in spite of all the laws and regulations safeguarding our lands and its people.’
A press statement from UNTABA Chairman Hukavi Yepthomi and General Secretary Ejanthung Ngullie stated that ‘inactions on the part of the Government of Nagaland all these years has given free hand to the Government of Assam and its administrative machinery inside Nagaland who have been working tirelessly in facilitating thousands of encroachers to settle in the Naga lands along the border.’ It appealed for the state authorities to ‘act promptly in safeguarding our people and its lands so as to avoid more unwarranted situations in the border areas.’
UNTABA reminded that the Assam state Government had entered into an agreement with the Nagaland state government to ‘enforce uniform policy to any encroachers irrespective of the areas or state to which the encroachers may belong (Interim Agreements of 1972) and to withdraw all Assam Armed Police posts from areas predominantly inhabited by Nagas in the Diphu, Nambor and Rengma Reserve Forests which roughly covers an area of more than 4,974.16 Square Miles bordering the present Diphu, Nowgong and Sibsagar Districts of Assam.’
It further said that the Assam Government had also agreed to conduct ‘searches in the Naga inhabited areas in the above mentioned areas only in the presence of the Magistrates and Civil Police officials of both the States (Interim Agreement of 1979).
However, UNTABA lamented that instead of evicting encroachers from the Assam along border areas starting from Dilai gate area to Mon District as per the general agreements, the release said.
The Assam armed Police have indulged in ‘wanton killings of Nagaland people even inside their own land and random destruction of both movable and immovable properties,’ the said release further added. (UNI)