Rebels want Rs 4 crore from tea gardens

Panic prevailed in tea gardens of eastern Assam where Naga rebels are said to have created havoc by serving extortion notices to major tea gardens, forcing garden managers and employees to flee the garden.

Disclosing that NSCN (I-M) rebels engaged in peace talks and ceasefire in Nagaland have served an extortion demand of Rs 4 crore to a garden of Williamson Magor Group (WM) near Margehrita, authoritative security sources told this newspaper that the movement of Naga rebels created panic among the officials of Namdang Tea Estate at Namtok in Tinsukia district.

Security sources pointed out that heavily armed Naga rebels not only set a temporary shade of the garden factory on fire, but also opened fire in the air to create panic. Security sources said that armed rebels had gone to the garden to intimidate the garden management.

Informing that garden officials, including a senior manager of the tea estate owned by the WM Group, fled the garden thereafter, security sources said that senior police officers of the district have already been informed and asked to beef up security in order to check the movement of armed rebels in the area. Security sources said that a team of Assam Rifle had also gone to the area.

Pointing out that Naga rebels operating from trouble-torn Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh have been targeting the tea gardens of frontier areas for extortion in Assam, security sources said that the NSCN(K) faction has also served extortion notices to some of the tea gardens of the area.

Security sources said that movement of armed rebels created panic among the garden employees.