2005 - Indian Social Institute

evening after 36 Karbi villagers were brutally killed in a string of attacks forcing thousands of people to flee
their homes. Twenty-two bus passengers, all of them Karbis, were killed at Jirikinding, a village located
320 km east of Guwahati. (PPioneer 19/10/05)
Assam violence on, toll 47 (6)
Guwahati, Oct. 18: Violence and arson continued to rock central Assam’s Karbi Anglong district where the
death toll of Monday’s massacre went up to 47. Fresh incidents of arson were reported from some new
areas of the district on Tuesday. Assam chief secretary S. Kabilan visited Diphu the district headquarters
of the hill district where several bullet-ridden bodies of the victims are yet to be retrieved from the debris of
houses set on fire by the attackers. This came to light when a group of reporters, while on their way to
Diphu from Lumding, found bullet-ridden bodies in roadside villages which were set on fire. Even 24 hours
after the incident, the civil administration has not been able to reach the affected villages to retrieve the
bodies of the victims. The group of reporters also recovered a large number of empty cartridges of AK-47
rifles from the villages which were completely deserted after assailants set them on fire. The police said
that at least 10 houses were set on fire by some Karbi attackers in Manza area of the district. The
authorities have clamped the curfew and ordered shoot at sight for second night fearing massive
retaliation by the majority Karbis on the minority Dimasas. According to the driver of a bus in which
massacre took place, the attackers were heavily armed but they used sharp weapons to kill men, women
and children passengers of the bus. The driver of the bus who described himself as to be a Nepali citizen
was allowed to go by the assailants. (Asian Age 19/10/05)
Toll reaches 80 as violence continues in Assam (6)
Diphu : Tribal rebels in the hills of Assam’s violence-scarred Karbi Anglong district are continuing with their
death dance with seven more Karbi villagers brutally massacred, taking the toll in three-weeks of barbaric
ethnic clashes to 80, officials Wednesday said. The police on Wednesday recovered dead bodies of
seven Karbi tribal people from remote Doyangmukh village, 310 kilometres east of Assam’s main city of
Guwahati. This is the latest in a string of attacks in the Karbi Anglong district where violent ethnic clashes
between the majority Karbis and the Dimasas have put the authorities in shame. “A big group of heavily
armed Dimasa tribal militants late Tuesday attacked the village and killed seven Karbi villagers. Some
died of bullet wounds and at least three of them were hacked to dead using machetes and spears,” a
senior police official said requesting anonymity. The rebels then set ablaze at least 50 homes before
leaving the village. Police suspects the militants to be from the outlawed Dima Halom Daoga (DHD) that is
fighting for an independent homeland for the Dimasa tribe in eastern Assam. The attack took place even
as the Army soldiers with shoot-on-sight orders were patrolling the entire district which had been put under
an indefinite curfew since Monday night. Police said Karbi rebels backed by their community members
raided at least three villages belonging to the rival Dimasa tribe and torched up to 200 homes. “There are
no reports of casualties from the Dimasa villages although many people had fled their homes after the
attacks,” Karbi Anglong district magistrate DD Tripathi said.
Nine more killed; 120 houses torched in Karbi (6)
Guwahati: VIOLENT ETHNIC clashes contin ued unabated in Assam's Karbi Anglong district on Friday
when nine militants were killed in a fierce gunflght and more than 120 hous es were torched. The toll in the
ongoing three-week ethnic rioting has reached 89, officials said. Police said heavily armed mili tants of the
Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) killed nine rival Karbi trib al rebels near village Khejurband in Karbi Anglong
district, 295 km east of Guwahati. "According to preliminary re ports, 12 armed Karbi rebels were involved
in torching of houses be longing to the Diniasa tribe when they were challenged by a group of DHD
militants," a senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said over telephone. Nine rebels, wearing
olive green fatigues, were killed. The DHD rebels decamped with weapons from the dead militants. Police
suspect that the victims were cadre of the outlawed United People's Democratic Solidarity (UP-DS), a
rag-tag rebel army lighting for an independent homeland for the majority Karbi tribe in eastern Assam.
"Witnesses said the rebels killed by their rival group with automatic weapons were from the UPDS and
they managed to burn down more than 120 houses before the en counter took place," the official said.
Both the DHD and the UPDS are currently observing ceasefires with New Delhi. The fresh attacks came
even as the Centre on Thursday decided to disarm the rebels of the two warring groups. (Pioneer
22/10/05)