Nine more persons were killed on Sunday in Assam as violence continued despite the state government's claim to have augmented the deployment of security personnel.
Militants belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom struck again on Sunday night at a village under Kakotibari police station in Sivasagar district of Upper Assam killing at least seven Bihari persons and injuring three others at around 8.45 pm.
Militants on motorcycles opened indiscriminate fire on Bihari brick kiln workers who were staying in a rented house of one Girija Konwar.
In another incident, ULFA ultras struck at a brick kiln in Moran owned by one Pawan Halali and shot dead one Jai Mangal Sah and injured two others. In another incident, unidentified militants shot dead a businessman at Kachugaon in Kokrajhar district at around 6.45 p.m.
Earlier, Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal visited the violence-ravaged Tinsukia district of Upper Assam to review the situation and take stock of the security arrangement.
The Union minister also reviewed the situation with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at Guwahati airport before his departure to New Delhi.
Jaiswal, after arriving at the Indian Air Force base in Chabua, rushed to Doom Dooma where the Hindi-speaking population bore the brunt of ULFA-triggered mayhem.
The minister spoke to close relatives of the victims of the violence and assured them of better security cover against ULFA. He told the people that the state government had been instructed to make adequate security arrangements. He also visited injured persons undergoing treatment at Assam Medical College Hospital.
Terror-struck Hindi-speaking people in Doom Dooma and other parts of the district gathered there to submit a memorandum to the Union minister asking for compensation for victims of violence and security for their lives and property.
A large group of Hindi-speaking people from Doom Dooma area has been blocking the National Highway 37 at Borhapjan along with bodies of nine persons killed by ULFA in nearby Longswal area on Friday night.
The protestors were in no mood to cremate the bodies unless the state government handed over the responsibility of law and order in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts to the army.
Meanwhile, Assam Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Ajai Kumar Singh on Sunday lambasted ULFA for its 'inhuman' and 'cowardly' attacks on the 'hardworking' and innocent Bihari population contrary to the peaceful, multicultural and secular tradition of the state.
He called ULFA not a revolutionary outfit, but at best a 'group of criminals' indulging in unlawful activities.
