Nine more bodies recovered from violence-hit Assam-Nagaland border

Death toll in violence in B­Sector of disputed boundary between Assam and Nagaland has gone up to eleven with recovery of nine more bodies in the affected villages on Friday.

Assam Home Commissioner G.D. Tripathi told The Hindu that the recovered bodies were related to indiscriminate firing and arson by miscreants from Nagaland in eight villages in Assam’s Golaghat district along the disputed boundary on August 12. Most of the victims died in arson, he said. Miscreants torched about 200 houses following which over ten thousand people fled their houses to take shelter in ten relief camps in Uriamghat area of the district. Earlier one person succumbed to bullet wounds while body of another person was recovered in an affected village.

He said that over the past two days no fresh incident had occurred.

Mr Tripathi said that the Assam Government would pay ex­gratia of Rs 8 lakh each to the next of kin of the victims. He said that identification of the recovered bodies was on. The Home Commissioner also asked the district administration to visit camps to compile a list of missing persons and correlate the data with the recovered bodies to ascertain if any person was still missing. The number of inmates in relief camps swelled to over ten thousand with about 400 more people fleeing their villages and taking shelter in the camps on Thursday.

In his Independence Day speech delivered after ceremonial hoisting of the national flag here, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that his government was very much concerned about occurrence of violence on Assam­Nagaland border and killing of innocent people by miscreants.

The state government had taken all possible steps for restoration of peace and normalcy in the affected areas and had also taken the initiative for resolution of the issues through discussion between the two states at the chief secretary level.

Meanwhile, the indefinite economic blockade Nagaland imposed by some organisations at Rangajan area along National Highway 39 in Golaghat district to protest the attacks by miscreants on Assam villages along the inter­state border, entered the third day affecting supplies to Nagaland’s commercial hub-Dimapur town.