Ten persons have been killed and eight injured while three went missing on Wednesday, when miscreants fired indiscriminately on a village in the Behali Reserve Forest in Sonitpur district of Assam, which borders Papumpare district of Arunachal Pradesh. There were also reports of an exodus of people from the area.
Assam Home Secretary G.D. Tripathi said the incident occurred around 5.30 p.m. when “encroachers of the Behali Reserved Forest areas attacked people from Assam who had encroached upon areas of the same reserve forest.” He said that while the reserve forest is in Assam, there was encroachment by people of Arunachal Pradesh, and the neighbouring State was disputing the area. Officials of both States discussed measures to contain the situation.