Silchar, Feb. 4: The North Cachar Hills district in south Assam is reeling under a 36-hour bandh, which began at 5 am today. The bandh was called by the newly-formed Dimasa Youth Forum (DYF) to protest against the Centre?s delay in initiating peace talks with Dima Halam Daoga to wrap up the decade-long hostilities in the district.
A senior police official at Haflong, the headquarters town of the district, today said the bandh was ?near total?. Shops, markets and educational institutions remained closed and attendance at government offices and banks was thin. Vehicles remained off the roads in the district, but trains plied without any hindrance.
No untoward incident has been reported in the district so far, police said. They have taken several precautionary measures, including mobile patrolling and posting of pickets in the vulnerable areas.
A senior official of the district administration claimed on phone from Haflong that the DYF has a link with the DHD and is masterminding the bandh at the behest of the rebel outfit.
But Dip Dimasa, the office secretary of the DHD, today denied any such link while speaking over phone from Haflong. The secretary said he had come to know of the bandh only this morning after returning to Haflong from the district?s interior areas.