ADSU calls 36-hour bandh in North Cachar Hills district

Silchar, Nov 4 (UNI) The All Dimasa Students' Union (ADSU) has called a 36-hour bandh in the troubled North Cachar Hills district of central Assam and adjoining Dimasa inhabited areas from 0600 hrs on November 6.

Addressing a press conference here yesterday, ADSU sources said they had called the bandh to demand the state government to create a separate state for the Dimasas, named Dimaraji.

Besides the North Cachar Hills, the proposed Dimaraji should include the Dimasa inhabited areas of Cachar, Nagaon and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam and Dimapur sub-division of Nagaland, the ADSU added.

''The agitation will be completely democratic in nature. This is only to press upon both the Centre and state governments to accelerate the process for the creation of the proposed Dimaraji,'' ADSU chief advisor Sanjay Barman said.

The ADSU's other demands included publication of the Phukan Commission report on the 2003 Hmar-Dimasa ethnic clash in south Assam and preservation of historical palaces of Dimasa Kingdom in Dimapur.

ADSU functionaries said during the bandh, the agitators will disrupt the traffic on National Highway 53 (Imphal-Badarpur), NH 44 (Badarpur-Jawai), NH 54 (Silchar-Aizawl) and the Silchar-Lumding Hill section of the North East Frontier Railway.

The ADSU condemned the killing of seven CRPF personnel and four other people, including a Congress candidate, in the North Cachar Hills during the past two days and demanded immediate arrest of the miscreants.

UNI