Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, JUNE 4
CLOSE on the heels of the recent visit and appeals by Home Minister Y Patton to the disturbed Nagaland-Assam border area near Dikoi village, ugly clashes surfaced again today. Three to four hutments were torched inside Dikoi, preceded by half-an-hour of intermittent exchange of gunfire between Dikoi villagers and another group of Nagas seeking to establish shelter in the vicinity
The last such clash on May 24 last led to the death of one Naga (a resident of Dikoi village) in a gunfight with Assam police who were retaliating to an early morning ambush by another group of encroachers from Nagaland. Today, the group behind the ambush was established as one, going by the GSS, allegedly confined to only one single Naga tribe.
Sources from Dikoi village on Wednesday told Eastern Mirror that the “GSS group” belonged neither to the tribal community that constitutes Dikoi village nor that of Aoyimkum village.
In fact, after establishing the role of those “encroachers” who had ambushed the Assam police patrol party on May 24 last, the source said Dikoi villagers had on Wednesday morning demolished one of the hutments “illegally” constructed by the ‘GSS group’.
In retaliation, the GSS group at around 4 pm today resorted to firing blank shots. According to the source, the initial rounds were fired from 12 bore guns and ‘were intended to be blank fires.”
“But later on, they started using their automatic guns and the bullets reached Dikoi village as well as the rear part of Rangapahar cantonment,” the source told Eastern Mirror. The firing reportedly lasted for about 30 minutes. He was emphatic that today’s incident is an offshoot of the May 24 violence.
