‘No proposal to include Dima Hasao in Nagalim’

Guwahati: Prime Minister’s envoy for Naga-talks R.N. Ravi on Saturday said that some outside forces are collaborating with separatist forces inside India to derail the ongoing Naga peace-talks.

When contacted, Mr Ravi told this newspaper that he has not come across any proposal from any organisation to include part of Dima Hasao into greater Nagalim, a demand that NSCN(I-M) has been insisting. “I am deeply saddened over the lose of two precious lives in Assam which resulted after a baseless rumour in a section of media,” said Mr Ravi, asserting that the Government of India has clarified it, time and again, that territorial integrity of any of north-eastern states is not going to be affected due to Naga talks.

He said that there are some forces which have been trying to create unrest in north-eastern states by spreading such false propaganda. He, however, refused to name the “forces”, but indicated that respective state governments have been asked to crack the whip against such elements.

After Thursday’s incident of police firing, situation in trouble-torn Dima Hasao district was peaceful on Saturday. The police said that an indefinite curfew has been clamped in the violence-hit areas of the district.

Several tribal groups have also called a 48-hour bandh in Dima Hasao district to protest Thursday’s police firing. The protesters are demanding the government’s stand on the Nagalim issue in the context of the hill district in writing.

Meanwhile, Assam State Transport Corporation has sent at least 25 buses to Halflong the district headquarters to evacuate over 1,100 train passengers who were stranded at Halflong and Maibong after protesters damaged the railways tracks soon after the incident of police firing on Thursday.

The protesters stopped the Guwahati-bound Silchar-Guwahati fast passenger train at New Haflong station on Friday. The passengers have been stranded since then.