Scattered violence continued for the sixth day on Thursday in riot-torn lower Assam districts where one person was killed in police firing while four persons were injured in an attack by a group of persons in Baksa district.
Two more bodies were found in trouble-torn districts of Assam, taking the toll in the mayhem unleashed by ultras there to 36, even as the curfew clamped in the area was relaxed on Tuesday as no fresh violence was reported from anywhere.
The current deluge has so far claimed eight lives in the state and nearly two lakh people have been affected, official sources said.
To assess relief and rehabilitation requirements of violence-affected people, a team of seven senior central officials will visit Assam on Tuesday.
The abducted engineer of Power Grid Corporation Limited has been released by his captors in Kumarikata area of Assam's Baksa district, the police said on Wednesday.
Security forces maintained a round-the-clock vigil in lower Assam districts, where violence resurfaced, and elsewhere in view of the anti-talk ULFA faction threatening major strikes ahead of Independence day celebrations.
Over four lakhs riot-hit are lodged in 278 relief camps in the violence-affected areas and out of those over 200 relief camps have been set up in educational institutions.
Cries of 'Jai Hind' rent the air as a large number of people bid a final adieu to Colonel Viplav Tripathi, his wife and five-year-old son, who were killed in a terrorist attack in Manipur two days ago, in their hometown Raigarh in Chhattisgarh on Monday.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has directed the deputy commissioner of Baksa district to institute a magisterial inquiry into the kidnapping and death of a youth in the wake of allegations from various quarters that he had been killed by army personnel. The army has denied any involvement in the incident.
People have been affected in 132 villages under 12 revenue circles in Baksa, Barpeta, Dhemaji, Kamrup, Nalbari, Sibsagar and Sonitpur districts in the third wave of floods, official sources said on Wednesday.
According to an official flood bulletin, fresh rainfall across the state, particularly in the catchment areas of Brahmaputra, has resulted in alarming rise in water level.
With the Centre worried over some organisations trying to stoke social tension by calling bandhs in Assam where continuing violence has claimed 88 lives, the state government on Wednesday officially declared all shutdowns as illegal.
Curfew in Rangiya sub-division of Kamrup Rural district was relaxed on Friday even as no incident of fresh violence was reported from any part of Assam.
Four more bodies were recovered on Wednesday in lower Assam, which witnessed fresh incidents of violence, taking the toll to 77, police said.
With the recovery of a ody in the violence-hit lower Assam districts, the death toll in the unrest on Friday rose to 45, while the army staged flag marches in worst-hit Kokrajhar and curfew was relaxed in some of the affected districts.
Three police personnel and a member of pro-talks faction of the militant National Democratic Front of Bodoland was arrested along with arms and ammunition on charges of gun running on Thursday.
The police on Friday arrested ten persons in connection with torching of a Nano car at Nizgossaingaon village in Baksa district of Assam on Wednesday. The ten were picked out of the 65 persons rounded up by the police on Thursday night from the area.
Three persons were injured, one of them seriously, when a crude bomb exploded at a village near Goreswar town in Baksa district under violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council in Assam on Sunday.
In the heart of lower Assam -- Nalbari, Baksa and Barpeta districts -- the battle of ballot is basically confined to the regional Asom Gana Parishad and the ruling Congress majority of the total 14 constituencies, while the All India United Democratic Front and the Bodo People's Front are emerging front runners in rest of the constituencies.
An unused cartridge of the army exploded accidentally killing a seven year-old boy and injuring eight others in Assam's Baksa district on Sunday.
The Assam government on Monday said that even though they had prior information about an attack on adivasi villagers in Assam by the militant group NDFB (S), the remoteness of location prevented security forces from reaching there in time.
The joint operation group of the Unified Command structure reviewed security scenario in the four Bodoland Territorial Area Districts in view of the Bodoland Territorial Council polls scheduled on April 8, a defence spokesman said on Friday.
The flood situation in Assam deteriorated on Sunday with over 19,000 people reeling under the waters in more than 60 villages across the state.
While the BPF and the UPPL are considered rivals in the Bodo-dominated areas, there was no pre-poll alliance among other parties as well.
Dhubri is the worst hit with over 8.72 lakh people affected, followed by Barpeta with more than 4.78 lakh people and Goalpara with around 4.28 lakh population.
Five persons, including three women, were killed and 75 others injured when the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam struck with vengeance by triggering an explosion at the weekly market at Kumarikata in Baksa district of Assam bordering Bhutan hills at around 1.20 pm on Sunday. The bomb was planted on a bicycle.
The deluge, which had affected 2.5 lakh people in 11 districts on Wednesday, spread to six more districts on Thursday affecting 4.23 lakh people, it said.
Four persons drowned in Baksa district, three in Dhubri, two in Golaghat and one in Jorhat district since Tuesday as 20 districts were reeling under the third wave of floods this season.
The flood situation affected nearly 26.5 lakh people across 28 districts.
The toll rose to 78 on Thursday in attacks by NDFB-S and retaliatory violence in lower Assam with Adivasis setting afire houses of Bodos as the backlash to Tuesday massacre continued for the second day.
Security forces in Assam arrested 26 tribal insurgents, including 18 belonging to the NDFB-S, accused of massacring Adivasi villagers on Monday.
Train services were paralysed in Assam as several Bodo outfits resorted to a 12-hour railway blockade in Kokrajhar while violence continued for the third day in Karbi Anglong as ethnic groups stepped up their demand for a separate state on the lines of Telangana.
A high voter turnout was recorded in West Bengal, Assam Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry assembly elections on Tuesday. The massive polling exercise following COVID-19 health protocol and involving lakhs of personnel began at 7 am and the last hour from 6 pm to 7 pm was set aside for COVID-19 patients and those under isolation. The counting of votes in the states will be held on May 2.
The union has sought clarification on the environmental impact of the project in the nearby areas of neighbouring Assam.
Addressing a massive public rally to celebrate the signing of the accord on January 27 that is expected to bring lasting peace to the troubled state, Modi said now the time was to work together for peace and development of the North-East.
In a major breakthrough, security agencies on Monday arrested a total of 18 National Democratic Front of Bodoland- Songbijit terrorists, including the commanding officer of its 13th battalion Bikunas Narzary alias Birlangbai, from different places across Assam and a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered.
Life was hit in lower Assam for the second day on Tuesday in three bandhs called to press for Bodoland and Kamtapur, while Karbi Anglong, which had erupted over statehood demand on the lines of Telangana, was slowly limping back to normal.
Leading hotels are taking all precautions but the unusual service the staff has been pressed into puts them at the forefront of COVID fight.
The flood situation in Assam worsened on Saturday with four more deaths reported and over 6.5 lakh people being affected in more than 1,400 villages due to incessant rains across the state.
A civilian was killed and two army jawans when a group of suspected militants suspected of the anti-talks National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction) ambushed an army search party at Amjora village under Kajigaon police station in western Assam's Kokrajhar district on Wednesday.
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