Centre rushes more central forces to Assam-Nagaland border

New Delhi, Aug 19: The Centre on Tuesday rushed around 1,000 additional paramilitary personnel for deployment along the Assam-Nagaland border where armed groups allegedly from Nagaland killed nine people in Assam last week.

The decision has been taken after a meeting between senior officials of the Home Ministry and Assam government here, official sources said.

Central and state government officials reviewed the situation along the Assam-Nagaland border and decided to take all possible steps to defuse tension which is engulfing both the states. The meeting decided to take urgent steps for security and rehabilitation of the violence-hit people and restore confidence among them, sources said.

After the killing of the nine persons on August 12 allegedly by armed groups from Nagaland, nearly 10,000 people fled their homes in seven villages of Golaghat district in Assam.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and his Nagaland counterpart T R Zeliang will meet in Guwahati on August 21 to discuss the current problems in the border areas.

Gogoi today said people living along Assam-Nagaland border and the inmates of the relief camps do not have confidence in the central security forces deployed along the disputed belt.

Assam Chief Minister's convoy was attacked by protesters yesterday when he was visiting violence-hit Uriamghat.

As Gogoi approached a relief camp at Uriamghat, angry protesters shouted slogans against him and some of them pelted stones at security vehicles in the tail end of the convoy, slightly damaging two of them.

PTI