Gogoi alleges nexus between militants and NC Hills District Council

Guwahati, May 20 (UNI) Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today accused the ruling coalition of the North Cachar Hills District Council of being involved in a criminal nexus with the radical Dimasa militants.

The District Council is governed by a coalition of the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The coalition had defeated the Congress in the District Council elections.

Addressing a press conference here, the Chief Minister claimed that the state government had clear evidence of the alleged nexus between the ruling politicians and the militants.

''Systematically, the money of the district council has been siphoned off to the coffer of the militants,'' he said, adding that an inquiry had been ordered.

He said the government would maintain a tough stand against the insurgents, adding that it needed time to examine the ceasefire offer given by the Dimasa militants.

''We require more time to verify the genuineness of the ceasefire offer and then only we will respond. It took us 10 months to announce ceasefire with Bodo militants,'' he said.

However, he announced that an ''Auxiliary force'', comprising surrendered militants, would be raised to take on the insurgents operating in the state.

''Whenever there is a need, we will deploy the surrendered militants, numbering about 1,000, but they will be not inducted into the regular police force. We are doing it because they do not need training and regular appointment process is a long one. We cannot wait that long,'' he said.

He said the Centre was unable to provide additional forces for the state and the plan for recruiting the ex-servicemen had also not materialised as they were not interested.

The Chief Minister said the Dimasa militants were supported logistically by the NSCN(IM) militants.

The Black Widow group of the Dimasa militants killed 25 people during the past week.

However, they announced ceasefire yesterday and asked both the railway and highway projects to begin their stalled work.

The Northeast Frontier railway had removed their entire personnel from the North Cachar District following which there were no train services since the past one week in the district.

Mr Gogoi also announced that the Black Widow militants would not be given a free run.

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