In the absence of any effective intervention by the government, the ongoing agitation for statehood by various ethnic groups in Assam has started taking the colour of ethnic clashes with non-tribal groups calling a 36-hour Western Assam bandh opposing a separate Bodoland from Saturday.
As violence continued to rock the hill district of Karbi Anglong on Saturday, at least 13 organisations, which include the NSUI and the Youth Congress, on Saturday floated a joint action committee for an autonomous state, which will spearhead their agitation for an autonomous state of Karbi Anglong.
The ethnic groups — the Bodos, Karbi, Dimasas and Koch-Rajbongshis — have for long been demanding separate states sliced out of Assam.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who is in New Delhi, on Saturday sent two senior ministers Prithwi Manjhi and Pegu to Diphu to take stock of the situation but Karbi leaders spearheading the agitation for a separate state did not turn up to meet them.
The failure of the state administration in containing the violence also came under severe criticism, with regional AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta organising a demonstration in front of Raj Bhavan asking for his intervention to protect the life and property of common people in violence-hit Karbi Anglong.
Fearing more attacks on railway tracks, the state administration has issued a shoot-at-sight order on railway tracks connecting Upper Assam. Pointing out that at least 100 metres of railway track was damaged, the police said that there were at least three attempts to blow up the railway track by planting improvised explosive devices near Diphu, the district headquarters of Karbi Anglong.
Security sources said that there were reports of clashes in the Bodoland Territorial Council and its adjoining areas following a bandh called by non-tribal groups, which is opposed to the demand for a separate Bodoland. Assam IGP (law and order) S.N. Singh, who held a meeting at Diphu to take stock of the prevailing situation, said that five additional companies of security forces have already been rushed to the trouble-torn hills.