Sarupathar (Assam): Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s convoy was attacked by protesters on Monday when he was on his way to visit the violence-hit Uriamghat in Golaghat district bordering Nagaland.
Gogoi was unhurt in the attack but two vehicles at the rear of his convoy were damaged, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) A P Rout said.
The chief minister, who enjoys Z+ category security cover, had left Jorhat for Golaghat this morning by road. As Gogoi neared a relief camp at Uriamghat, angry protesters shouted slogans against him and some of them pelted stones at security vehicles in the rear end of the convoy slightly damaging two of them, Rout said.
The protestors were urged to peacefully disperse but when they refused, police resorted to lathi charge, fired rubber pellets and used water canons. One person was injured in the lathi charge and was admitted to a local hospital, Rout said.
Members of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti also burnt an effigy of Gogoi protesting against the killings at Uriamghat allegedly by miscreants from Nagaland. The chief minister was at the relief camp for about five minutes and later reviewed the situation with senior government officials.
Altogether nine people were killed on August 12 allegedly by miscreants from neighbouring Nagaland and nearly 10,000 people fled their homes in seven villages of Golaghat district and taken shelter in relief camps set up by district administration.
Referring to the attack on his convoy and subsequent lathicharge by the police on protesters, Gogoi said, “People’s anger is natural but law and order has to be maintained.” “They are welcome to even show me black flags but cannot damage government vehicles.
The authorities have to take necessary action to control the situation,” he told reporters here after he returned from the relief camp. However, those protesting were “indulging in politics and were not interested in resolving the issue”, he said.
Meanwhile, Gogoi on Monday said his government would set up Border Development Council and Border Protection Battalion to ensure development and security along the state’s borders.
These would be done as “we are not happy with the functioning of the neutral force, CRPF, which has not performed their duty with responsibility along the Assam-Nagaland border,” Gogoi said.
“Nobody had asked for removal of neutral forces for the last 35 years but now I am asking for it and will also ask for deployment of the BSF,” he told reporters here after returning from a relief camp at violence-ridden Uriamghat in Golaghat district.
The Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said he has already written to the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister in this regard and urged them to resolve the border dispute at the earliest. (PTI)
