Anti-insurgency offensive, on ctre central team on way

Guwahati, Jan 7 (UNI) Hundreds of soldiers took over the streets as indefinite curfew was clamped in Tinsukia after the orgy of violence by the ULFA in east Asom.

Meanwhile a central team is scheduled to arrive here to take stock of the situation.

The outlawed Uni ted Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) had gone on a rampage, killing at least 49 people and wounding 30 in separate raids in the three eastern districts of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, and Dhemaji, with Hindi-speaking migrant workers the primary target.

''Security forces have fanned out across the region with the army, police, and paramilitary troopers engaged in a systematic anti-insurgency offensive,'' official sources here said.

Meanwhile, ULFA has reportedly blamed the government for the mayhem in eastern Asom, which resulted from the stalling of the peace process. The attack is said to have been carried out by their 28th battalion's 3 company, which is their most potent strike force.

Soldiers in armoured vehicles patrolled Asom on Sunday, enforcing a curfew in Tinsukia. The curfew was clamped across the district late on Saturday and may be reviewed by security officials later today.

In the last few years 41 people were massacred in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts of Upper Asom by ULFA in 2000, about a 100 Hindi-speaking people in 2003 were killed in retaliation to the rape of a NE girl in Bihar on train and 23 last year in three separate attacks.

Meanwhile, hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets in Tinsukia shouting slogans against the outlawed ULFA. Several people blocked a highway in the district late last night and demanded stern action against the ULFA for the savage attacks.

Asom was transformed into a veritable killing field over the last three days with one more killing last night.

A high-level central team led by Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal was also scheduled to arrive in Asom for an on the spot study of the situation arising out of the violence. The team is expected to visit the violence-hit Upper Assam districts of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia.

The decision to send the central team was taken after an hour-long meeting convened by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil last night.

UNI