After much criticism, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will finally be visiting ethnic violence-hit Kokrajhar district on Thursday to take stock of the volatile situation.
Gogoi is expected to arrive in Kokrajhar at 11.00 am from where the recent wave of violence started earlier this month.
The death toll in clashes between illegal Muslim immigrants and Bodo tribals, and subsequent police firing has risen to 41.
Also, over two lakh people from 400 villages are living in some 120 relief camps after moving out of the violence hit areas.
In fresh clashes overnight, three people were reported to be injured in police firing in a new area – an indication that the violence continues to spread.
Indefinite curfew continues to remain imposed in two districts of Assam’s north-west, while shoot-at-sight orders also continue to remain in place in four districts – Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Chirang and Bongaigaon.
The Army, whose thirteen columns have been deployed in affected areas, will continue to conduct a flag march today.
Defence spokesman Colonel S Phogat said the Army units had identified a number of sensitive and hyper-sensitive areas in the four districts to enable them to better patrol them.
The Centre has meanwhile asked the Assam government to nab the “ring leaders” involved in unrest.
In Delhi, Union Home Secretary RK Singh said 2,000 central security personnel have been deputed to guard Guwahati-bound trains and railway tracks which were disrupted.
“We have asked the state government to book ring leaders of both sides so that violence can be checked immediately. No one involved in the violence will be spared,” he said.
Ruling out the possibility of involvement of anyone from across the border (read bangladesh), he said, “The international border is sealed. It is simply impossible for any organised group crossing over to India from across the border to carry out the attacks.”
North Frontier Railway spokesman Nripendra Bhattacharjee said passenger and goods trains services had partially resumed Wednesday afternoon and the stalled trains would resume their journey with the ‘improvement’ in the situation.
More than 30,000 passengers, who are still stranded in New Bongaigaon, Kamakhyaguri and New Jalpaiguri stations of the NFR section, complained of food and water crisis.
“With the resumption of train services, we hope that the stranded passengers will be taken to their destinations gradually,” the NFR spokesman said.
Joint secretary, MHA in-charge of Northeast, Sambhu Singh and Ajay Chaddha (special secretary, internal security) toured the affected areas in Kokrajhar yesterday to take stock of the situation.
Singh later said there was “no proof of Bangladeshi immigrants involved in the incident so far. The Bangladesh economy has improved and so infiltration possibilities have come down.”
–PTI