Assam: Dima Hasao bandh ends, passengers evacuated

SILCHAR: With the 48-hour bandh called by different Dimasa organizations at Dima Hasao district coming to an end at 5am on Sunday, the situation in the hill district has partially returned to normalcy.
Authorities managed to evacuate a total of 1096 passengers, who have been stranded at New Haflong station for the past four days, to Silchar. The railway tracks which had been damaged during the protests last week were repaired and the passengers were transported by a Silchar-Guwahati special passenger train, said a senior Northeastern Frontier Railway (NFR) official.

However, the NFR has decided to suspend services of all trains on the Lumding-Silchar section till January 31 owing to problems of security, said the official.

Last Thursday, protesters put up a blockade at Maibang station, stopping trains headed towards Guwahati and Silchar and dragging out passengers from inside. Tracks were removed at different places on the Lumding-Silchar section. Two persons were killed and six were injured in the police action that followed.

A district official and 19 policemen were also injured in the clashes during the12-hour bandh called by Jadike Naiso Hosom (JNH), the apex body of the Dimasas, and other organizations.

They had called the bandh in protest against the RSS's alleged conspiracy to include the hill district in the proposed Nagalim. More than a thousand passengers have been staying at the New Haflong station for the last four days, facing the cold and an acute shortage of supplies. On Saturday, the passengers went on a rampage in the station.

With a semblance of peace returning to the strife-torn district on Sunday and the passengers being evacuated, people came out of their houses, markets were open and vehicles were seen on the roads in Haflong. At Maibang, where 144 CrPC has been in place since Thursday, the curfew was relaxed for five hours from 10 am to 3 pm on Sunday, allowing normal movement in the area.

Barak Valley and Hills division commissioner Anwar Uddin Chaudhury on Sunday visited Dima Hasao to take stock of the situation. An official said chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has called the agitators to Dispur to discuss their demands on Monday.