Guwahati, July 15 (IANS) Tension prevailed in Assam’s Tinsukia district on Wednesday as hundreds took to the streets after militants killed a man and his daughter from the Hindi-speaking community.
The protesters rallied in different areas in Tinsukia in the state’s east condemning the government’s failure to provide security to the community in the state.
They shouted slogans demanding stern action against the killers.
Suspected militants from the anti-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom shot dead the father and daughter late on Tuesday evening and injured three others of the family.
A four-member group of militants came to the house of Nandalal Shah at Bijuli Ban area around 8.45 p.m. and shot dead and his daughter Kajol.
They also injured Shah’s wife Monti Devi, son Manoj Shah and nephew Akshay Lal Shah. The injured were rushed to the Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh.
Parts of Tinsukia district like Doomdooma and Kakopathar remained shut for the whole of the day on Wednesday in protest against the brutal killings.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi vowed to deal with the militants with a firm hand and told the security forces to take all steps to secure the lives of all citizens in the state.
“We have taken the matter seriously. The ULFA often resorts to violence ahead of elections but we are going to deal it very firmly,” said Gogoi.
An Assam home department official said the violence followed mounting pressure on ULFA to go on the offensive by the newly-floated platform of the northeastern militant outfits, the United Liberation Front of the Western South East Asia (UNLFW).
There were intelligence inputs that ULFA might target either security forces or the Hindi-speaking community, a soft target, to make its presence felt, the official said.
“We are reviewing the deployment of forces,” the official said.