Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai on Wednesday expressed concern over law-and-order situation in Bodoland Terrorial Area Districts (BTAD) areas of Assam.
Speaking on the occasion of completion of seven years of installation of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in Kokrajhar, Mr. Pillai called for combined efforts by all concerned to improve the law and order in BTAD areas.
Later speaking to journalists, Mr. Pillai said that security forces would be carrying out raids to detect and confiscate all unlicensed and unauthorized weapons and would also keep a tab on the licensed weapons in BTAD areas to ensure that every voter can vote freely in the ensuing BTC elections due to be held in April.
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Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Pillai said here that 138 people were killed in BTAD areas over the past two years, which, he said, was really a matter of concern.
Mr. Pillai also said that peace talks with the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Ceasefire) faction was progressing and some settlements might happen in next few months. About the NDFB (Ranjan Daimary) faction he said operations had been continued to mount pressure on the faction. He said that if Ranjan Daimary faction did not come forward for peace talks then the outfit would be irrelevant.
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Troops of Red Horn Division of the Army shot dead three suspected militants of NDFB(Ranjan Daimary) faction in an encounter at a village about 9km north of Majbat in Udalguri district of BTAD. The troops also busted a temporary shelter of the militant outfit and recovered one AK 47 rifle, one 9mm pistol, one revolver and three magazines, 20 rounds of assorted ammunitions, 46 fired cases, extortion receipts signed by self-styled captain E. Rinkhang and tarpaulin sheets.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also urged the NDFB (Ranjan Daimary) faction to come for peace talks and said that it would futile to carry on the arm struggle any more. He said that people of BTAD areas have started experiencing fruits of development following the signing of the Bodo Accord by the erstwhile BLT and installation of the BTC and making rapid progress in different fields.