Woman killed, one hurt in fresh NC Hills violence

Guwahati: A Dimasa woman was killed and another seriously injured when Naga tribe raiders attacked a Dimasa inhabited village in a fresh incident of ethnic violence under Mahur police station in North Cachar Hills district of Assam on Friday. According to an official source, a group of suspected Naga miscreants opened indiscriminate fire at Dimasa villagers at Phiding village at around 11 A.M. on Friday killing Noham Dibragede (48). Another woman Lomi Kemprai (50) was seriously injured in the attack.

48 houses of the village were earlier destroyed when Naga miscreants set fire to it on May 9 last and all the villagers have been taking shelter at a relief camp at Samsavpur located about two kilometers away from the village.

The villagers visited their burnt down village daily during the day -time in groups from the relief camp to work on their farmland and take care of livestock that were left behind.

Naga miscreants pounced upon the hapless villagers when they had gone to the village on Friday.

The ethnic violence involving Dimasa and Zemi Naga tribe is continuing in the hill district despite heavy deployment of police, army and para-military forec personnel.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is yet to resume train services in the hill district where unmanned railway stations are now being guarded by security personnel.

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Ray of hope for Reang refugees after Centre move

Agartala: A ray of hope for the repartition of Reang refugees to their homeland enlarged with the Centre considering expediting the process by next year.

A high level meeting involving Mizoram, Tripura and Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) was held in Delhi to find an amicable solution to the vexed problem.

In the meeting, the Centre has assured the Tripura government that it would take all possible steps to ensure repatriation of Reang refugees sheltered in North Tripura’s Kanchanpur subdivision, said Chief Secretary Sashi Prakash.

Talking to media here on Friday, Sashi Prakash said that Sushil Kumar attended the meeting where a threadbare discussion on the refugees’ problem was held. In the meeting, Kumar pointed out problems being faced by the local people as well as administration to provide ration and other facilities to the refugees.

He also strongly demanded early repatriation of refugees from Kanchapur. In reply, a high official of MHA assured that it would ‘request’ the Mizoram government to take back refugees within a year.

He further added that the state government had spent Rs. 27 crore for supplying ration, cash dole and other facilities and urged the Centre to reimburse the expenditure. In reply, the MHA official assured of giving Rs. 20 crore against the total expenditure amount.

Earlier, a round of meeting was held at Aizwal in the presence of MHA representatives to find a solution to the Bru refugees’ problem.

In the meeting, the Mizoram government announced that it would take back only genuine citizens of Mizoram and a survey will be carried out in six relief camps to identify the bonafide citizens.

It may be noted that 35,000 Bru people were forced to evacuate from their homeland- Mizoram in the wake of ethnic clashes between Bru and Mizo in October, 1997. Since then they have been living miserable lives in the six refugee camps in Kanchapur subdivision, adjacent to Mizoram.

Source: http://www.theshillongtimes.com/