A day after eight jawans of Assam Rifles were killed in an attack by National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) militants in Nagaland’s Mon district, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday urged the Centre to take serious note of the developments.
The Chief Minister also expressed concern over the recent development of the militant outfits in the North-Eastern States coming to a joint platform setting aside their differences. “It’s a matter of concern and we are worried. The Central Government should take the matter seriously. The attacks on the security forces and the North-Eastern militants forming a joint platform are a matter of concern,” Gogoi said, while addressing a Press conference on Monday.
The NSCN-K, which had in March this year abrogated from the ceasefire with the Government of India, had been launching attacks on security forces in Nagaland and parts of Arunachal Pradesh. Suspected cadres of the outfit had on Sunday killed eight jawans of the Assam Rifles at Mon district in Nagaland and injured four others.
The militants had attacked another group of security forces in Kohima and killed one Army jawan last month. Meanwhile, the Assam Chief Minister also took a shot at the Centre’s recent decision to exclude Assam from the land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh and said that this is against the principles of cooperative federalism, which the Prime Minister often boasts of.
“We have been supporting the land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh as it would have benefitted Assam. However, the State Government was not even consulted when the Centre decided to exclude Assam from the agreement. This is not federalism,” he said. Slamming the recent visit of Nitin Gadkari to Assam, Gogoi said that all the projects he announced were earlier announced by the UPA Government. “There is nothing new in it,” he said.