Fresh tension has gripped the Assam-Nagaland border in Assam's Jorhat district again on Monday after unidentified miscreants from Nagaland allegedly fired at a group of labourers and killed one of them in Assam side of the border.
The locals, who had been suffering from this problem for a long time due to lack of proper boundary demarcation between the two States, have now appealed the Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to intervene and end the boundary problem.
Jorhat Deputy Commissioner RC Jain said that the fresh incident took place on Monday after a group of labourers went to Naginijan area under Mariani police station for work. "Suddenly a group of Naga miscreants appeared on the spot and fired indiscriminately on the labourers. One person, who had received bullet injury during the incident, however, died while on the way to the hospital later," Jain said.
Police said that the deceased had been identified as Sanjay Bhumij. Jain said that the labourers had alleged it to be a handiwork of Naga militant outfits on ceasefire. He said that police launched an operation in the area immediately but the miscreants seem to have escaped towards adjacent Mokokchung district of Nagaland.
This led to the simmering tension in the area till filing of this report although the district administration claimed to have controlled the situation.
locals, however, complained that the atrocities from the Naga militants, who are on ceasefire pact with the Government of India, had becoming a recurrent problem in the area and appealed the intervention of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to end the woes of the people.
The areas bordering Nagaland in Jorhat district of Assam is not foreign to such incidents as there has been no proper demarcation between the two States.
Senior police officials in the district said that they had been in touch with their counterpart in Nagaland and that they had assured that the culprits would be brought to the book soon.
The small township of Mariani has been the centre of a serious tension for over last one week following the abduction of two Assamese villagers by Naga miscreants on May 23. later the next day, some labourers damaged two vehicles — a Bolero and an Alto — traveling to Nagaland via Assam in protest against the abduction. Following this, some Naga organisation had been holding a blockade of Mariani-Mokokchung and Amguri-Tuli road.