Udalguri and Darrang still burning: toll reaches 36

Udalguri and Darrang districts are still burning on Monday. Its spreading to make the  situation more volatile.  Three persons died, several others have been injured when police  resorted to firing to disperse an irate mob when they were setting on fire three more villages  in Bhakatpara area in Udalguri district on Sunday.

In yet another sporadic incident of violence on Sunday, two people died, two others have  been missing in Naharbari and Murkota villages in Majbat when the miscreants set some  houses ablaze. Five more persons were hacked to death at Dimakuchi market by some other  miscreants at around 12 noon on Sunday. With this, the toll has gone up to 36.

Seven more people have been left seriously injured in an incident of firing by miscreants in  Ikorabari village. With this, the total death toll mounted to 36. The simmering tension has  forced over ten thousand people of Kodomtoli and Borbagan to leave for Kolaigaon for  safety and security. Meanwhile, the authorities have set up several camps for those  displaced at the height of violence. Besides, four companies of CRPF, army and Assam  rifles were deployed to quell the situation.

Other groups in the violence-torn districts joined the clashes, with mobs armed with machetes, spears and homemade guns targeting rival communities. Now the violence is not confined to the tribal Bodos and the minority, even indigenous Assamese and tea garden workers are caught in the clashes.

Police and locals blamed militants of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), currently engaged in a ceasefire accord with the central government, of attacking and torching villages belonging to the minority community.