Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday announced that the National Investigation Agency would probe the brutal NDFS(S) attacks on adivasis and its violent aftermath in Assam, which left 78 “poor and innocent” people dead.
Mr. Singh told a press conference after touring affected Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts, “I have
spoken to the Assam CM and we have decided to investigate the entire incident by the NIA. We want to see the links of such groups. We want to know with whom they have connections.”
The Home Minister assured the state government of all assistance and said that if necessary, Army assistance would be provided to the state government in its crackdown on the outfits.
He pointed out that the Centre already provided 50 companies of paramilitary forces to Assam.
Mr. Singh ruled out talks with the group, saying “there will be no dialogues with such organisations. Only action will follow. There will be time—bound action, we don’t want to drag it. I have asked the state to directly start operations”
The Home Minister also said that the Indian government had received assurance of cooperation from “one of the premiers” of Bhutan and Myanmar for flushing out terrorists from their territories.
Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed him of this development this morning, Singh said appealing to the people of Assam not to term the unfortunate incident as ethnic clash.
“Terrorists do not have religion, caste and region. They are only terrorists,” he observed.
He also informed reporters that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken the incident very seriously and announced Rs 2 lakh each for the family members of the killed.
“The PM wants to work for the country and for this region. Some forces like this are interfering with it. But we will win over these forces... Such incidents are challenges for the nation,” Mr. Singh observed.
Sushanta Talukdar reports:
Earlier speaking to media the Union Home Minister said that the “policy of zero tolerance” which has been adopted against terrorism by the Central government would also be pursued against the NDFB (Songbijit) for massacring civilians.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, on Thursday, said that the Centre would treat the massacre of Adivasi villagers in Assam’s Sonitpur and Kokrajhar district by the National Democratic Front of Boroland (Songbijit) as ‘an act of terror’, not as ‘an act of ordinary militancy’ and therefore the policy of “zero tolerance” would be adopted towards the outfit.
Speaking to media the Union Home Minister said that the “policy of zero tolerance” which has been adopted against terrorism by the Central government would also be pursued against the NDFB (Songbijit) for massacring civilians.
He met representatives of violencehit families, delegations of organisations, reviewed the prevailing situation as well as relief and rehabilitation measures at the Biswanth Chariali Circuit House in northern Assam’s Sonitpur district.
Mr Singh, before flying to Kokrajhar district in an Army chopper to take stock of the situation there, also said that Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Joel Oram would be camping in Biswanth to take stock of the relief and rehabilitation measures.
Serial attacks by NDFB (Songbijit) militants on Adivasi villages in remote areas along the India-Bhutan border in Kokrajhar district and along AssamArunachal Pradesh border in Sonitpur district on Tuesday night left 67 Adivasi people —30 in Kokrajhar district and 37 in Sonitpur district dead, and several others injured. Most of the victims were women and children. Five Bodos were killed in retaliatory violence by miscreants among the Adivasis in Chirang and Sonitpur districts while three Adivasi protestors were killed in police firing in Dhekiajuli in Sonitpur district on Wednesday.
The massacre and subsequent violence of torching of houses triggered exodus of people from affected villages. Authorities said that about 14,000 people belonging to both the Bodos and the Adivasis have taken shelter in 14 relief camps opened in the affected districts.
