Curfew relaxed in Karbi Anglong, bandhs end in lower Assam

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With no fresh incident reported, curfew was relaxed in strife-hit Karbi Anglong district, while the three bandhs in lower Assam ended Wednesday after affecting normal life for two days.

As Karbi Anglong was slowly limping back to normalcy with no fresh violence reported over the demand for a separate Karbi state on the lines of Telangana, the district administration relaxed curfew in the headquarters town of Diphu from 6 am to 6 pm, official sources said.

In the Hamreng police district, the curfew was relaxed for six hours from 10 am, the sources said.

Meanwhile, the three bandhs called in lower Assam districts of Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Baksa, Dhubri and Goalpara for separate states of Bodoland and Kamtapur since August 5 ended at 6 am this morning, the sources said.

The All Bodo Students’ Union curtailed its 60-hour statewide bandh to 48 hours and the All Koch Rajbongshi Students’ Union shortened its 36-hour shut down to 31 hours in view of Eid.

The United Peoples’ Democratic Forum suspended its 1500-hour bandh from this morning in view of NDFB leaders having talks with the union government on their demands.

The bandhs had brought life to a standstill in the lower Assam districts with bandh supporters blocking National Highway 31 at several places affecting movement of traffic, the sources said.

All educational institutions, markets, offices and business establishments remained closed during the bandh while vehicles were off the roads.

Karbi Anglong saw eruption of violence on July 31 over the statehood issue with government property and offices set ablaze across the hill district and police resorting to firing in several places with two people being killed.