Tension prevails in Bodoland: Assam govt

Guwahati, Mar 14: The Assam government said the situation in Bodoland areas, though tense, was today under control, after four people were killed in police firing to control clashes between NDFB cadres and BPF supporters.

State Cabinet Minister Rockybul Hussain, while making a statement on behalf of the government in the Assembly, informed that senior officials had been deployed in the Bodoland Territorial District Area (BTAD), following clashes over the past two days. He mentioned that the proscribed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) had been on ceasefire since June 2005 but many of its cadres were breaking ground rules by staying in camps other than the three designated camps in BTAD.

The minister informed that the problem had started when the district administration's move to transfer the NDFB cadres to an ''illegal camp'' at Bengtol in Chirang district was met with resistance from the cadres as well as local residents.

The initial clashes left eight injured, one of them critically, Mr Hussain said, adding that the militants and locals had attacked the local Bodoland People's Front(BPF) youth wing office. The police, which was already present there, resorted to lathicharge and had to fire when the mob turned violent, he said.

Four persons had been killed, while four others were wounded, he added. He said a peace committees had been formed in the area and though tension prevailed, it was under control.

While the NDFB had been fighting for an independent Bodoland, the BPF, floated by former Bodo rebels, is the coalition partner of the Congress in the state.

The Assembly had witnessed an adjourned earlier in the day, when the Opposition parties' demand for a statement from the government on the issue was initially denied.

UNI