(IN): Morning mayhem on border

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<Huts and cattle sheds were razed to the ground in all three villages.

Several heads of cattle were charred when the marauders torched houses.>

 

Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070706/asp/frontpage/story_8022941.asp

 

Morning mayhem on border

OUR BUREAU

 

July 5: Armed Naga encroachers raided three Assam villages today in the

manner of medieval invaders lusting for new territory.

 

The 45-minute raid left a trail of two bodies, charred cattle corpses, razed

houses and strained relations between two governments that have idled over

their boundary dispute for nearly four decades.

 

Official sources said the encroachers entered Assam through the unguarded

inter-state border in Sivasagar district with war cries on their lips and

targeted Sonapur, Dhekiajuri and Borholla villages. All three villages are

under Geleki police station.

 

Two persons, Sarafat Ali of Sonapur and Min Bahadur Chetri of Borholla, were

shot dead. Another villager, Kamal Bahadur Chetri, was critically injured

when he stepped on a landmine planted by the raiders before they returned to

Nagaland.

 

" There would have been more deaths and injuries had villagers not fled their

homes after hearing war cries at a distance. The raiders were in a murderous

mood, " said Abdul Gafar Ali of Sonapur village.

 

The three villages are inhabited mostly by Nepali and tea tribesettlers, as

well as Muslims who were drawn to the area by the fertile land. The combined

population of the three villages is around 2,000, official sources said.

 

Huts and cattle sheds were razed to the ground in all three villages.

Several heads of cattle were charred when the marauders torched houses.

 

Sonapur, Dhekiajuri and Borholla are all located within a five-km radius of

the inter-state border.

 

The attack provoked the All Assam Students' Union to clamp an indefinite

economic blockade along the Naginimora-Mokokchung road, a part of which is

in Sivasagar district. It also declared a district bandh tomorrow to protest

the government's failure to protect life and property in the border

villages.

 

The organisation threatened to block all roads leading to Nagaland if more

such incidents occurred.

 

The commanding officer of the 1st Assam Police Battalion based at

Ligeripukhuri in Sivasagar district, A. Kuddus, described the morning's

mayhem as a " planned attack by a large group of miscreants from across the

border " . He said the landmine was planted to prevent Assam police from

following them.

 

Abhishek Singh, the deputy commissioner of Mokokchung district of Nagaland,

led a delegation to a meeting at Sivasagar Circuit House later in the day.

 

Officials of the Sivasagar administration said Nagaland must arrest the

culprits and hand them over to Assam for trial.

 

The boundary dispute between the two neighbours has been festering since

1968, when Nagaland police attacked Assamese villagers at Doyang forest

reserve. A similar incident occurred at Rengma forest reserve of Karbi

Anglong on January 5, 1979.

 

The worst clash was on June 4, 1985, when over 100 people died in firing

between Assam and Nagaland police at Merapani. That incident led to the

states signing an interim agreement to maintain status quo on the boundary.

 

The first sign of trouble along the Sivasagar stretch of the boundary in

recent months was Nagaland police setting up a border outpost at Chengibil.

It was dismantled when Assam police set up an outpost just in front of it.

 

A year ago, a butcher was shot at and wounded by a Naga youth at Namtola

market on the Assam side. On May 29, an Assam police team shot dead an

alleged criminal from Nagaland in the same area.

 

Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070706/asp/northeast/story_8021175.asp

 

Rude awakening for villages

- Pulverised residents believe marauders will be back soon INAMUL HAZARIKA

 

*Dhekiajuri village (Assam-Nagaland border), July* *5:* Rifles crackled

before the cock crowed in this nondescript village today.

 

It was around 3am when Samardhaj Limbu was rudely awakened by the sounds of

gunshots. What followed was more frightening: full-throated war cries.

 

Having lived in this area for as long as he can remember, it did not take

long for Limbu to make out what these war cries meant. " I just grabbed my

child and dragged my wife to the back door. We ran towards the tea garden

about 200 metres away, " he recalled, still groggy and in a state of shock.

 

Hiding in one of the several *nullahs *(drains) that criss-cross tea

gardens, Limbu witnessed a horrifying sight. " Hundreds of people armed with

guns and sharp weapons were setting houses and cattle sheds ablaze. They

were also shooting in the air. I saw my neighbours running for their lives

even as their dwellings burned, " Limbu, a farmer, said.

 

The orgy lasted about 15 minutes before the marauders headed for the next

village, the war cries growing shriller.

 

Just about a km from Dhekiajuri, Sarafat Ali of Sonapur village came out of

his house on hearing the sound of gunfire. He then saw flames on the

horizon. As he stood transfixed by the sound and light around him, a bullet

struck Sarafat.

 

As he fell, the villager mustered enough strength to shout to his wife and

four children to run for their lives. Those were his last words.

 

The invaders set Sarafat's house ablaze but his family managed to flee just

in time. One of his daughters, eight-year-old Shamim, said her mother was

untraceable. " I do not have a clue where she is, " she sobbed.

 

The invaders' third target was Borholla village, where they turned crueller.

They called out Min Bahadur Chetri from his house and shot him in cold

blood. Min Bahadur's wife, a ward member of the village committee, went

missing in the melee. Till late afternoon, nobody from the family knew where

she was.

 

After pillaging three villages, the raiders from across the border destroyed

tea bushes on a seven-*bigha *plot. They then walked off towards the hills

of Nagaland, just about 3 km away.

 

Another incident occurred after they left. Kamal Bahadur Chetri, a villager

who had gone to the tea garden to survey the damage, stepped on a landmine

planted by the raiders and was seriously injured.

 

Staring at the smoke billowing from the embers that was once her home,

Birkhamaya Limbo could only say: " *Akou ahibo sihont *(they will return). "