ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Kokrajhar remains tense following Santhal-instigated violence

The situation in violence-torn Kokrajhar district remained critical today, while two persons died and eight injured when the police fired to disperse Santhal miscreants in Kachugaon town yesterday, official reports said.

The police had to open fire when the miscreants were looting shops and business establishments in the town. The Santhals also damaged some abandoned Bodo houses in different villages under Tamarhat police station of Gossaigaon sub-division.

Security forces further intensified patrolling in sensitive areas of the district.

About 300 people have so far been rounded up in connection with the 11-day-old violence. Nearly 3,000 affected people took shelter in relief camps.

Meanwhile, the Bodo Sahitya Sabha has condemned the spurt in violence and held the state government responsible as it failed to understand the problems of the tribal people.

In a statement yesterday, its president Bineswar Brahma alleged that the government was trying to keep alive ethnic problems to cover its failures.

The Sabha appealed to all political parties and right-thinking people of the state to make sincere efforts in restoring normalcy in the trouble-torn district.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report