Violence flared up afresh in Assam’s Kokrajhar region on Saturday, with an armed mob killing five people in Chirnag district, under the Bodoland Territorial Council, and two other bodies being recovered in south Assam’s Dhemaji district.
Assam home secretary Gynendra Tripathi told this newspaper the police had found five bodies in Chirang district on Saturday. The bodies had cut marks, and some had bullet injuries. The victims were travelling in a Tata vehicle, and were coming from the Amguri relief camp when they are believed to have been attacked by a mob led by armed miscreants near Mangolia Bazar. Security sources in Kokrajhar, headquarters of the BTC, said one person was still missing. Six people had been travelling in the Tata mobile. The police has started operations to flush out the miscreants. Extra police and paramilitary reinforcements have been rushed to the affected areas, where the forces are already deployed since the outbreak of violence on July 19.
In New Delhi, Union home ministry officials said the Centre was keeping a close watch after the fresh violence erupted on Saturday.
A report said an unidentified man had called the subdivisional police officer in Chirang and asked him to go to a particular spot, from where the bodies were recovered. The identity of the victims is not yet known, but it is believed that they belong to the minority community.