Terror haunts Biharis in Upper Assam

Tinsukia, Aug 11(UNI) Fear is writ large on the faces of Hindi speaking people in Tinsukia town after the massacre of 14 people of their community in separate incidents in Upper Assam last night.

But the Assam government is making every effort to instil confidence among the community.

''We are making every possible security arrangement and have advised the people, specially the migrant labour, not to venture out after darkness,'' said Tinsukia District Magistrate D K Dwibedi.

His district and Karbi Anglong are the two most vulnerable ones as both have the maximum number of Hindi speaking people. In Tinsukia, the community is involved in business, trade and daily wage labourers, while in Karbi Anglong, most of them are sugar cane farmers.

''We have instructed all the Deputy Commissioners to remain vigilant,'' said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who today air dashed to Ampahar in Karbi Anglong.

ULFA and Karbi militants massacred 14 people at Bokajan last night.

An angry Chief Minister did not change his pre-determined visit and instead of going to the massacre site, chose to go to his hometown Jorhat which faced a similar ULFA attack three days ago.

''We will give full protection to them,'' Mr Gogoi vowed while announcing a compensation package today. Assam DGP R K Mathur also visited the spots with him.

Some of the Hindi speaking people in Tinsukia town have understood that they had 'become the biggest pawn of this game'.

''The ULFA have realised that they can hurt New Delhi by targeting us. North Indian politicians react much more aggressively when some of us are killed. But when bombs go off in the Assamese areas, nobody bothers. These politicians do not understand that we are born here and unlike them, we have assimilated into the Assamese society. Their extra concern and competition for publicity have made us sitting ducks every year,'' said a community leader of Tinsukia.

Speaking in similar vein, North East Students Organisation(NESO) Chairman Dr Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharrya said, ''Delhi reacts more aggressively whenever Hindi-speaking people are targetted and remain silent when Assamese are killed. This has created a division and the militant organisations have found a reason to feel successful from such attacks.'' Meanwhile, tension ran high in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh where the Hindi speaking people were spending sleepless nights and mostly keeping indoor, fearing attacks in the run up to the Independence day.

Intelligence reports also apprehended more attacks till August 15.

UNI