Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was heckled at a relief camp in the worst-hit Tinsukia district for failing to protect lives even as the backlash against Biharis spread to Darrang district where militants gunned down three persons taking the toll in the ethnic violence in Assam to 56.
The chief minister on Tuesday visited relief camps in Tinsukia town, besides Duliajan and Doomdooma, to assess the situation. At Doomdooma, agitated Biharis shouted slogans against Gogoi for his alleged failure to protect their lives.
Even after he left the camp, over 1000 Biharis followed his convoy shouting slogans and later stoned a number of buses. The Biharis also stormed Congress Bhawan and attempted to ransack it, but were stopped by security personnel, reports from the district said.
On Monday night, militants had mowed down three Biharis, including a woman and her grandson, at Khanglabari village in Darrang district, which becomes the sixth district to be hit by the ethnic violence in the state.
Since November 15, besides the three in Darrang, 29 persons have been killed in Tinsukia district, 10 in Dibrugarh, six in Bongaingaon, four in Dhubri, three in Nalbari and one in Guwahati in the aftermath on the attack on Assamese railway passengers in Bihar on November 11 and 12. Night curfew continues in 12 towns in the affected districts.
GOC-in-C (Eastern Command) Lt Gen J S Verma also visited worst-affected Tinsukia district to assess the situation. The army has been assisting the civil administration in controlling the violence. Gen Verma later met the chief minister and Governor Lt Gen (retd) Ajai Singh.
On Tuesday, the Red Horns Division of the army seized 350kg of explosives, besides 50 gelatin sticks and 62 detonators stored underground at a deserted ULFA hideout at Sipajhar area in Darrang district, defence sources said.
Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav, before concluding his two-day goodwill mission to Assam, gave an assurance there would be no repetition of the violence on Assamese train passengers.