Guwahati, April 23 (Inditop) One soldier of the Indian Army was killed and two wounded in an ambush by tribal separatists in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district Thursday while polling was underway for the second and final phase of parliamentary polls in the state, police said.
Heavily armed militants of the outlawed Dima Haolam Daogah (DHD), popularly known as the Black Widow, attacked three security posts in Langting area of North Cachar Hills, about 320 km south of Assam’s main city Guwahati.
“The militants fired indiscriminately on at least three locations, killing one army soldier and injuring two more,” police spokesperson A. Das told IANS.
Polling was underway Thursday in 11 of the state’s 14 Lok Sabha seats – Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaliabor, Nagaon, Tezpur, Lakhimpur, Guwahati, Mangaldoi, Barpeta, Dhubri and Kokrajhar.
Balloting in the North Cachar Hills district had been conducted April 16.
An estimated 14.73 million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 15,772 polling stations in the second phase elections with 121 candidates in the fray, including 11 women.
In nine constituencies, the ruling Congress party is locked in a direct fight with the opposition combine of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while in at least two seats it would be a triangular contest with the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF), a minority based party, in the third pole.
Heavy security arrangements have been made to ensure free and fair polling. Polling ends at 4 p.m.
