Thursday, June 04, 2009

Five killed in North Cachar hills

Guwahati, Jun 3 [NNN]: At least five persons died while a minor was injured when unidentified gunmen, suspected to be members of the Black Widow faction of tribal Dimasa insurgent group Dima Haolam Daogah, opened indiscriminate fire on a Naga village in restive North Cachar Hills district of Assam on Wednesday.

According to reports reaching here, a group of militants swooped down on Borochenam village, located around 28 Kms from district headquarters Haflong, in the wee hours of Wednesday and opened indiscriminate fire, killing five persons and injuring a minor.

“All the five persons died on the spot. The minor injured in the incident was rushed to Haflong for treatment,” official sources said.

As panic-stricken residents fled the village, the gunmen set their houses on fire. Fifty-four of the total 58 houses in the village were gutted, the sources said.

They added that senior officials of the district administration rushed to the site to take stock of the situation while police and para military forces cordoned off the entire area and launched a search operation to nab the assailants.

With this, altogether 29 persons have been killed while over 350 houses torched in the ongoing bloodbath in NC Hills. The victims were both Nagas and Dimasas.

In the wake of the violence, the authorities rushed a large number of security personnel to this hill district but they could do very little apparently owing to poor road communication, lack of coordination among the various security wings and the hostile terrains.

The state’s Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi blamed the two factions of Naga insurgents National Socialist Council of Nagalim/Nagaland (NSCN) and the Black Widow for the unrest.

“It is they who are fanning communal passion in the district. There are elements, which are trying to give it an ethnic colour but I must appreciate the Nagas and the Dimasas for maintaining communal harmony despite provocation. It is indeed a good sign that they don’t have any misunderstanding against each other,” the Chief Minister told media persons.

But rubbishing Gogoi’s charge, the Isak-Muivah faction of NSCN said, “We are made the scapegoat as they found none to blame for the incidents.”

“It is unfair on the part of the Chief Minister to put the blame on us. However, this is not the first time,” said NSCN (I-M) leader Phungthing Shimrang.
The Black Widow, when contacted, also washed its hands off the incidents.

Source: Newmai News Network

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