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Three persons were injured in police firing at Donkamokam, in the violence-ravaged Karbi Anglog Hills district on Friday, even as the army staged flag march in the affected district headquarter town of Diphu.
This was to control the situation that is spinning out of control during the last 48 hours, because of the renewed statehood movement started in a violent note by various Karbi tribe organisations including the Karbi Students Association.
Meanwhile, train services in Assam have been disrupted due to the violence in Karbi Anglong hill district as well as the 12-hour ‘Rail Roko’ agitation launched by All Bodo Students’ Union re-launching the statehood movement of Bodo tribe on Friday spurred by the United Progressive Alliance’s government’s decision to create Telangana.
A Northeast Frontier Railway spokesman said that all the long-distance trains including the Rajdhani Express had to be regulated because of the ‘Rail Roko’ agitation. However, all the trains running within Assam and between Assam and New Jalpaiguri in North Bengal were cancelled because of the agitations.
ABSU president Promod Bodo, while criticising Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s comment that Assam would not be divided further, stated that Assam would have to be divided as Bodos this time would not rest till a separate state is granted to them.
He said the situation would soon become as volatile as in 1987 when the ABSU statehood movement was at its peak, if the government fails to respond to the reality and start talking with the Bodo tribe over their demand for a separate state.
The police were forced to open fire when a mob of agitators in Karbi Anglong set fire to a police outpost at Dongkamokam. The situation in Diphu and adjoining areas in the hill district turned volatile after police arrested KSA president Laisang Engleng and three others on Friday because of their alleged role in instigating violence.
A large number of government offices, veterinary hospitals, and state electricity board offices were set on fire by the protesters on Friday in Karbi Anglong district defying the curfew.
The lone Congress member of Parliament and four Congress member of Legislative Assembly from Kabi Anglong are not in the district even as protestors demanded that they should resign to join the agitation.
The 36-hour bandh called by All Koch-Rajbongshi Students Union demanding a Kamatapur state comprising parts of western Assam and North Bengal on Friday paralysed life in Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Baksa and Nalbari districts in western Assam ight now there was good governance in the three BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh andGujarat.