Shoot-at-sight ordered in Assam

New Delhi: As tension continued to rise in the strife-torn state of Assam on Sunday, shoot-at-sight orders were issued in Tinsukia district following a series of attacks by United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants, which left 48 Hindi-speaking people dead and several others injured.

On Sunday, even as a high-level Central team led by Union Minister of State for Home, Sriprakash Jaiswal, headed for Assam to review the situation, protestors blocked a highway in Tinsukia holding the bodies of some of the victims killed in Friday's massacre.

A red alert has been sounded across the state and night curfew has been imposed in Tinsukia. Reports said there was no overnight violence in the district and the situation was gradually limping back to normal.

The ULFA went on a rampage in the three eastern districts of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Dhemaji on Friday and Saturday, targeting mainly Hindi-speaking migrant labourers. It was the first major attack by the ULFA in the last one year.

On Saturday morning, the ULFA militants killed 23 Bihari and Bengali brick-kiln workers and injured five others in Tinsukia's Sadiya subdivision. Twenty-five non-Assamese people were killed on Friday night by the insurgents in two separate attacks in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts. As many as 11 other people were injured in the attacks.

Following the attacks, there have been clashes between immigrant labourers and the ethnic Assamese people in pockets of Dhola and Tinsukia towns.

On Saturday, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil reviewed the security scenario at a high-level meeting in Delhi and took stock of the situation arising out of the sudden spurt in killings by the ULFA. The meeting decided to send a high-powered Central team led by Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal to Assam to review the situation.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday urged the Centre to protect the Biharis in Assam. Kumar spoke to Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Home Secretary V K Duggal and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to express his concern and demand security for the Biharis living in the Northeast state.

Kumar also announced a relief of Rs 1 lakh to the victims' families and wanted the Central and Assam governments to compensate them too. The Assam government, however, announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 3 lakh to the next of kin of those killed and Rs 50,000 to those injured in these attacks.

In 2000, ULFA militants had killed at least 100 Hindi-speaking people in Assam in a series of well-planned attacks after the rebel group vowed to free the state of all non-Assamese migrant workers.

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