April 17: As Cachar and North Cachar continue to burn, another ethnic conflict is brewing in neighbouring Karbi Anglong over granting of Scheduled Tribe (hill) status to the Bodos living in the hill district.
Assam home commissioner B.K. Gohain told The Telegraph that security in Karbi Anglong has been beefed up in view of the indefinite road and rail blockade called by the militant outfit, the Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills People’s Resistance — a frontal organisation of the anti-talks faction of the United People’s Democratic Solidarity.
The blockade is scheduled to begin on April 25.
There has been strong resentment among various Karbi organisations over the provisions of the Bodo accord signed by New Delhi and Dispur with the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) which said New Delhi would sympathetically consider the inclusion of the Bodos in the list of Scheduled Tribe (hill).
The Karbi organisations expressed the apprehension that granting Scheduled Tribe (hill) status to the Bodos would adversely affect the rights enjoyed by the Karbi people.
On other hand, the BLT cadre is mounting pressure on the outfit’s top brass to defer the surrender of arms till the Bodos living in Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills are granted ST status.
The resistance group has also clamped a ban on the movement of all elected representatives in the two hills districts till the new Bodo accord is scrapped and warned of stern action against violators.
The Assam government has asked the police top brass to make a detailed assessment of the security strength in Karbi Anglong and draw up a blueprint for preventing an ethnic flare-up in the hill district. Bodo legislators in the Assembly had cautioned the government that if timely steps were not taken, fratricidal clashes may break out in Karbi Anglong.
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who had flown to Haflong this morning, had to return as the chopper he was travelling in could not land because of bad weather.
Gogoi was scheduled to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation in North Cachar Hills district in the aftermath of the Hmar-Dimasa conflict.
The North Cachar deputy commissioner I. Hussain yesterday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the ethnic clashes which broke out in the hill district and asked project director, district rural development agency, Sadhana Hojai, who has been entrusted with the probe, to submit the report in 15 days.
In neighbouring Manipur, the Ibobi Singh government today decided to bring the Bengali settlers who had fled to Cachar district back to Jiribam sub-division.