Assam toll reaches 26; PM condemns

Guwahati/New Delhi, Aug 12: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today condemned the killings of Hindi-speaking people in Assam's Karbi Anglong district, the number of which reached 26 within the last 72 hours after four more killed last night, while the NDA demanded that the Centre immediately intervene and initiate special measures.

Dr Manmohan Singh has talked to the state government and enquired about actions being taken in this regard.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil also condemned the attack and assured all possible help to the state government to check such attacks.

"The Centre was in touch with the state and taking stock of the situation there," he said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar sought the Centre's intervention in providing safety to the Hindi-speaking community in Assam, most of whom were daily-wage labourers from Bihar.

BJP president Rajnath Singh and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav told mediapersons in Patna that such incidents were direct attack on the country's unity and integrity.

''People in the country are free to move to any state and if such attacks were not prevented it would affect the peace of the nation,'' they opined.

A six-member team of Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal(U) would visit the state to take stock of the latest situation there.

The team, constituted today by Mr Rajnath Singh and Mr Yadav, will be headed by senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra. It will also include Mr Vikram Verma, Mr Kharvel Swain, Mr Kiren Rijiju, Mr Mahendra Sahani and Mr Janardan Sigriwal.

The team, which will tour various insurgency-affected areas in the state, will submit its report to Mr Singh and Mr Yadav, a statement issued by the BJP central office in New Delhi said.

The statement, however, did not say when the team would visit the state or for how long it would stay there.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi visited the district yesterday and assured of stern action against the militants.

However, his assurances and promises of providing safety to the Hindi-speaking population seemed to have failed when four more people - two Biharis and two Marwaris - were gunned down by suspected Karbi militants in Rongbonkha village under Borpothar out-post, under Bokajan police station last night.

The locality in which the victims lived was predominantly a Karbi-majority one. The remoteness of the site had delayed the police in reaching before dawn today.

The four victims, along with two other Hindi-speaking persons, were standing outside their homes when they were fired at. The deceased were reportedly small-time shop keepers. Two others managed to escape under the cover of night.

Since Wednesday night, 26 Hindi-speaking people have been killed in this hilly district by the ULFAs and Karbi Longri Nationalist Libertaion Front (KLNLF) militants, besides two of local community in a blast.

In one of the biggest massacres in the state, 14 people were gunned down on Friday night in Dolomora village, under Bokajan police station. The deceased included women and children.

The militants were targeting two Hindi-speaking families and after gunning them down, set their homes and a rice mill, owned by one of the victims, on fire.

Earlier on Friday evening, militants had lobbed two grenades at the shop of a Hindi-speaking person in Sukanjan area, about one km from Bokajan town which killed two persons, including a two-and-a-half-year-old child.

Another blast in Diphu had injured 10 persons, including two police personnel, on the same evening.

Earlier on Wednesday night, eight more Hindi-speaking people were shot dead by militants in Ampahar village, under Bokolia police station.

The militants have triggered a re-run of the January massacre, in which over 80 Hindi-speaking people were shot dead in different places across the state by ULFA militants.

UNI