Indefinite curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. has been clamped in B-sector of the disputed boundary between Assam and Nagaland while the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF),deployed on the disputed inter-State border, caught arsonists red-handed three when they allegedly made attempts to torch some abandoned houses in affected villages.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday told journalists here that three additional CRPF companies had been deployed in the affected areas even as no fresh major incident had taken place over the past 24 hours. The attack by armed miscreants on eight villages in Uriamghat area of upper Assam’s Golaghat district left two dead and three injured while the miscreants torched around 200 houses. About 10,000 people, who fled their houses from eight affected villages, have taken shelter in 10 relief camps.
Mr Gogoi said that he had apprised Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that the CRPF had not been able to effectively handle the situation.
He also urged inmates of the relief camps, whose houses had not been burnt, to return to their villages so that miscreants would not take advantage of the situation.
Assam Home Commissioner G.D. Tripathi told The Hindu that eight new pickets had been set up by the CPRF in vulnerable villages. A control room has also been set up to be jointly manned by CRPF, Assam Police and Nagaland Police.
Mr Gogoi said that Nagaland government also wanted the problem to be resolved amicably and that he would be holding threadbare discussions with Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang on August 21, when the latter is likely to visit here.
He said that a solution to the problem was elusive as the Assam government had been insisting on honouring the constitutional boundary that was decided at the time of creation of Nagaland as a State, while the Nagaland government had been insisting on “historical boundary.”
