Lalu, political parties condemn Asom killings

New Delhi, Jan 7 (UNI) Terming the grisly killings of labourers from Bihar and Bengal in Asom, orchestrated by banned militant outfit ULFA, as ''extremely reprehensible'', Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today said extreme caution should be taken to ensure that there was no backlash in Bihar.

''I am absolutely confident that violence would not spiral out of control and there would be no backlash in Bihar,'' Mr Prasad told reporters here.

The RJD President, who will be leaving for Tinsukia tomorrow along with Minister of State for Water Resources Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, said he had already talked to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in this connection.

''The killings are brutal and unfortunate. We should not forget the fact that people from Bihar, who have settled in Asom, have made enormous contributions to its development,'' he said, adding that the killings must be condemned in the strongest possible term.

The banned ULFA triggered a series of coordinated blasts and shootings since Friday night killing at least 48 people in Tinsukia, Dhemaji and Dibrugarh districts of Upper Asom. Most of those killed were Hindi-speaking migrant labourers.

The bout of violence came barely a day after Home Secretary V K Duggal reviewed the security situation in the north-eastern state in view of the 33rd National Games in Guwahati from February 9.

Meanwhile, condemnation of the killings of helpless Bihari workers continued to pour in from other political parties.

BJP President Rajnath Singh said the cowardly killing of non-Assamese by ULFA had once again showed the Centre's ''inept handling'' of the country's internal security.

''This unfortunate event is a direct result of the Congress party's and the government's soft stand on terror and separatists...It is evident now that the Congress government at the Centre has lost all the advantages gained during the NDA regime over ULFA terror,'' he said in a statement.

Mr Singh, who is now in Uttaranchal, also charged the Congress with taking the help of ULFA in elections and it was because of this reason that it was unable to deal with the banned outfit firmly.

The BJP President, who will be visiting Asom on January 9, said ''the Congress government at the Centre and in the state are responsible for the current state of affairs in Asom as they have always followed the policy of vote bank even at the cost of national interests. As a result the infiltration from Bangladesh still continues and militant training camps in Bangladesh are being used by outfits like ULFA.'' Expressing ''shock and outrage'' at the mass killings in Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Dhemagi districts, the CPI(M) said the ULFA had once again shown its ''reactionary character'' by targetting poor workers who had gone to the state to earn livelihoods.

''Such dastardly acts will further isolate the ULFA from the people of Asom. The state government has once agains proved its incapacity to deal firmly with such terrorist activities,'' the CPM Polit Bureau said in a statement.

It also impressed upon the state government to call a meeting of all political parties in order to eveolve a common approach to deal with the problem.

UNI