Regional differences; As bad as it gets'

[Jogi]

Upper Assam simmers with anti-Bihari rage

ENS & AGENCIES

GUWAHATI, NOVEMBER 18: One person from Bihar was killed, several beaten up, and some dwellings and shops were set on fire in three industrial towns of Upper Assam — Tinsukia, Duliajan and Margherita — early this morning. Later, suspected ULFA militants gunned down four Bihari truck drivers and injured seven in Dhubri district.

Police sources say two armed rebels came on a motorcycle to a highway dhaba at Baxir Hat around 7 pm and opened fire on 25 truck drivers watching the India-Australia cricket match, killing four on the spot. ULFA commander Paresh Barua had earlier threatened action against Hindi-speaking people.

A little before the bandh called by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) ended, a mob killed a Bihari and injured four others at Tiplai Colony in Tinsukia, police said. They added that a Bihari fish vendor was beaten up near the Deputy Commissioner’s office. In retaliation, some Biharis pelted stones at the Senairam Dungarmal High Secondary School. Tinsukia District Magistrate D. Das said the Army has been called out to prevent further violence.

In Duliajan, six AASU members were beaten up in a Bihari colony, following which shops owned by Biharis were set ablaze. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today visited some of the Bihari families whose houses were burnt last night. Later, based on the complaint from the affected families, he suspended the O-C of Dispur police station.

Gogoi held three meetings today with newspaper editors, senior citizens and representatives of political parties to find a solution to the violence.

Centre takes grave view, moves BSF companies

Pioneer News Service/ New Delhi

The Centre has taken a serious view of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam's (ULFA) role in escalating the Assam-Bihar conflict to give shape to its "anti-national" designs.

Considering the gravity of the situation, the Centre on Thursday pulled out seven companies of the Border Security Force from the Indo-Bangladesh border and moved them to Assam to be at the disposal of the State Government.

Based on substantive information from central intelligence agencies, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials are quite concerned with the developments in Assam. The ULFA had earlier given a 'quit' notice to all Hindi-speaking people based in the North- East region.

A classified Intelligence report submitted to the MHA on Thursday suggested that by fuelling violence, the ULFA was attempting to terrorise the Hindi-speaking people and oust them from the North-East. The outfit plans to replace them by pushing Bangladeshis in. The ULFA's nexus with the Pakistani ISI, which in association with Bangladesh's Director-General of Field Intelligence (DGFI), will help establish training camps for ULFA cadre, the report indicated.

What perhaps is even worse is that the report suggested that despite ULFA participation in the violence, the State police was not taking any note of it. Citing instances, an official said when 20 suspected sympathisers of the outfit were nabbed by the CRPF in Lakhimpur and handed over to the local police, they were released within an hour. In Bongaigaon, homeguards were reportedly present at the spot when the ULFA attacked a group of Biharis. Instead of reacting to the situation, which could have saved many lives, the homeguards quietly left the place,

The MHA therefore swiftly decided to send further reinforcements comprising central para-military forces even though the state has a huge presence of such personnel. An official said the state already has 123 battalions of central para-military force and 24 battalions of the Army. An additional six companies were sent on Wednesday to be deployed in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia.

According to reports, groups of militants were getting ready to strike at "non-locals" at various places in the state. An official said the All-Assam Students' Union (AASU) has agreed to withdraw its earlier call to retaliate after talks at various levels.

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Just Wanted to bring this up cause it sure is a grave situation and it brings up a few things to think about?:

well this has been going on is the eastern india esp ASSAM for over a decade now but it is becoming dangerously serious ' they have always hated non-locals (biharis,punjabis(sikhs),marwaris and bengalis) kidnapings, threats were in rife' from a sikh point of view we had to face two forms of discrimination ''religious and regional'........and this happens in every state outside punjab but in varying degrees, now the question is being a sikh if one offers u to live a) outside india or in india but outside punjab......what will u choose?? i will prefer to live outside india cause ethnic discrimination is not as bad as regional and religious hatred'

Coming back to the burning issue here , so where are they(read indians) heading? assam as a new (non-hindi speaking) nation? or bihar as a new nation (as no one wants them niharis in their state, punjab included and they do have some genuine reasons, but then again the centre govt is in power cause of mainly two states UP and Bihar ! and yeah this time its hindu V hindu ! its good time for the ISI to employ the divide and rule policy( in reference to the above article)!!