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Nearly 240 tribals arrested for ethnic violence in Assam

About 240 Bodo and Adivasi miscreants were arrested by security forces in the past 24 hours from different parts of Assam's Kokrajhar district for involvement in the ongoing ethnic violence there, state Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said.

The chief minister said the situation in the violence-affected parts of the district was brought under control through intensified patrolling and deployment of additional forces.

A delegation led by Transport Minister Pradeep Hazarika, Revenue Minister Zoiinath Sharma and Labour Minister Phoni Bhusan Choudhury, along with a delegation of Bodo MLAs, reached the spot on Wednesday to take stock of the situation.

The chief minister said 91 houses spread over six villages were burnt in this round of retaliatory violence between Adivasis and Bodos.

So far, nearly 200 Adivasi miscreants and 40 Bodo arsonists have been picked up. These include most of the culprits of the gruesome Bismuri incident of Sunday in which 14 adivasis were hacked to death by the Bodos.

The affected villages are Bangaldooba, Amguri, Nayakpara, Kaltongpara, Barapathar and Golasara, the chief minister said, adding that protective measures have been taken in the neighbouring districts so that the violence do not spread.

Bodo legislator Prameela Rani Brahma of Kokrajhar said the situation continued to be tense and violence might escalate.

Meanwhile, Mahanta said the boundary of the Bodoland Autonomous Council was almost finalised. Once that is done, the government would move the Guwahati high court as the court had earlier ruled that no area having less than 50 per cent of tribal population should be included in the BAC area.

UNI

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