DIBRUGARH, March 9 — As the last litres of petrol inside tank number 559 burned out this morning at the New Tank Farm of the Digboi Refinery complex, the alert has been relaxed, and evacuated families too have returned to their homes from the two makeshift camps in the township.
Locals in Digboi said they could still see some smoke coming out of the damaged 5000 kilolitre motor spirit tank this evening. However, refinery officials assured that the smoke is from the water and chemicals sprayed on hot metal. Suspected ULFA militants on Friday night fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the tank farm, which caused a giant petrol tank to go up in flames. In the wee hours of Saturday, militants struck again near Duliajan, where two gas pipelines were blasted by explosives outside the Kathalguri oil collecting station. The damage at the second place was minimal, compared to the huge Rs 22 crore loss for the Digboi refinery.
Meanwhile, security measures are being tightened around oil installations throughout the State. At the time of filing this report, a crucial security meeting is taking place at Duliajan, which is being attended by the civil and police administration of the Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts and senior petroleum industry officials, including M S Srinivasan, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Srinivasan is scheduled to have a security-related meeting with the State government at Guwahati on Monday.