Violence Spirals in Besieged NC Hills

Dimapur, April 29 (MExN): The volatile situation in the North Cachar Hills of Assam which has been under festering tension the last several months, is threatening to snowball into a major conflict as reports have been received that a village has been razed while score people have been killed and injured.

Amidst conflicting reports reaching here from different sources in Assam, one clear picture that can be surmised is that innocent people have been killed and that there is a raging conflict on in the North Cachar Hills of Assam.

The latest report of killing is said to have happened in a Dimasa village called Yah, situated under Maipong sub-division of NC Hills. It is reported that armed miscreants arrived at the village at around 6:30 pm and opened fire on villagers, killing around twenty of them and injuring more or less the same number.

The village, according to sources, had around 43 families. Reports of kidnapping from the village was also received. The reports could not be confirmed for the moment. Sources from NC Hills said the situation is very tense and that security forces comprising of the army, BSF and the CRPF have been deployed in large numbers in the area, ‘although operation has not yet started’.

Interestingly, the identity of the perpetrators behind the killings could not be ascertained in the wake of conflicting reports. Different sources offered different versions; some claimed that the gunmen were a so-called “Naga Youth Front” formed to protect the Naga community in the NC Hills after the DHD (J) started attacking Naga villages a few months back. Other sources suspected the involvement of either armed Dimasa or Naga armed groups.

The ‘chairman” of the DHD (pro-talk) faction, Dilip Nunisa told The Morung Express today that the rival faction DHD (Jewel) – also called the “Black Widow” – are attacking not only innocent Zeme villagers but also innocent parents and relatives of its deserted cadres. While appealing to the Zeme people for calm and peaceful coexistence, Dilip Nunisa denounced the activities of the DHD (Jewel) group and termed it as “anti-Dimasa, anti-human and anti-social”. He also informed that innocent people, mostly women, were killed in the attack by ‘unknown miscreants’ last night.

Strongly condemning the present turmoil in NC Hills, Dilip Nunisa appealed to the Naga and the Dimasa people not to add fuel to the fire and precipitate the situation. Rather, he appealed, means to coexist peacefully should be explored. “Communal clash is the worst clash…no one will escape from it,” the DHD chairman reasoned. He has appealed the ‘greater Naga society’ especially the Naga Hoho, to ‘cooperate’ and find means to usher in communal peace.

Meanwhile, the Dimasa Baptist Hosom (Mission Centre Dhansiripar) today strongly condemned what it termed the senseless and dastardly killing of Dimasa villagers in Yah village under Maibang sub-division of NC Hills by “a group of armed miscreants whose identity is yet to be ascertained”.

“Such act is unwarranted when there is already a fear of ethnic clash between the Dimasas and Zemes. No tribe will gain anything by provoking and attacking each other,” the DBH stated in a message received here today. It has appealed to the district authority to order an enquiry and bring the culprits to book before the situation worsens. “We appeal for calm and work for peace and tranquility in the district,” the DBH said.

With the latest incident of a Dimasa village being attacked, people fear that the situation in the NC Hills will turn for the worst and an ethnic conflict ensue unless and until the government and the civil society of both the communities intervene and find out means to solve the issue in an amicable way.

Source: www.morungexpress.com