Nagaon, Dec 23: The last batch of Khasi-Pnar refugees returned to their homes in Karbi Anglong yesterday after spending over two months in Meghalaya. Over 4,000 Khasi-Pnar residents of blocks I and II of Karbi Anglong had fled their homes and taken shelter in the Jaintia Hills after being served extortion notes by the militant United People?s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), which professes to represent the Karbi community. The result was a backlash against Karbis residing in Meghalaya.
The situation, however, appears to be limping back to normality with the final batch of about 500 refugees reaching Karbi Anglong last evening. A police source in Diphu, the district headquarters, said all Khasi-Pnars who had fled their homes along the disputed Assam-Meghalaya border in the wake of the UPDS offensive were back.
The return of the refugees was made possible by several rounds of negotiations between officials of Assam and Meghalaya. Security has been beefed up in the border areas as fear of attacks by Karbi militants continues to haunt the Khasi-Pnar residents.
Police pickets have been set up in the Khasi-inhabited areas along the border.
The ethnic conflict had taken a turn for the worse when Karbi people based in Meghalaya were asked to leave the state.
A Karbi student of Sacred Heart Theological College, 22-year-old Eldrin Tisso, was assaulted and set ablaze during the backlash.
He suffered 70 per cent burns, but survived. Three more Karbis were severely beaten up.
A member of the Khasi Students Union (KSU)?s finance wing, Le Verson Lyngdoh, was arrested for allegedly being party to the attacks on Tisso and three more Karbis. The student organisation refuted the allegation.
A few days earlier, the KSU had asked all Karbi residents of Shillong to leave the state capital.
Meghalaya chief minister D.D. Lapang and his Assam counterpart Tarun Gogoi have been in touch with each other since agreeing to jointly tackle the ethnic conflict, but differences between the neighbours remain.
Meghalaya home minister R.G. Lyngdoh has been constantly reminding his Assam counterpart Rockybul Hussain to start a joint operation along the border with Karbi Anglong, but Assam has yet to make a commitment on this.
The Lapang government had constituted a committee to speed up the process of rehabilitation of the Khasi-Pnar refugees. Revenue minister F.A. Khonglam headed the panel.
?We want to ensure that all the Khasi-Pnars who have been displaced are back safely in their homes in block I,? he said recently.
Officer on special duty B. Dhar monitored the process of rehabilitation along with his counterpart in Karbi Anglong.