LOST HIS HEARTH AND HOME: A riot-affected Karbi man stands in front of his fire-ravaged house at Hemariterang village in central Assam's Karbi Anglong district on Monday. At least 22 Karbi tribals were hacked to death and three injured by militants. More than 40 persons have been killed, 25 villages burnt and thousands left homeless since the onset of Karbi-Dimasa ethnic clash. _ PHOTO: RITURAJ KONWAR

GUWAHATI: Suspected militants hacked to death 23 persons belonging to the Karbi tribe, including eight women in central Assam's Karbi Anglong Hill district on Monday morning. They burnt down two buses in which the victims were travelling. Elsewhere in the district, suspected militants killed 10 more Karbis.

Home Commissioner B.K. Gohain told The Hindu that the attackers wearing black fatigues and with their faces covered waylaid two buses travelling towards Diphu at Charchim in Hamren Sub-division. They identified Karbi passengers and asked them to get off the buses. The militants then hacked 22 Karbi passengers and set fire to the buses. Two Karbis were injured in the attack, one died on the way to hospital. The bus passengers who escaped the attack later alerted the Milu police outpost under Kheroni police station. The local hill council, Karbi Anglong Autonomus Council, operated the two buses.

Mr. Gohain said shoot-at-sight orders had been issued and an indefinite curfew was clamped in the affected areas of the trouble-torn district. The Director General of Police, P.V. Sumant visited the spot on Monday afternoon while Inspector General of Police (Law and Order), D.K. Pathak is camping at Diphu to step up security operations to arrest those responsible.

Situation to be assessed

The Home Commissioner said he would accompany Chief Secretary S. Kabilan, who heads the strategy group of the Unified Command and General Officer Commanding IV Corps and Lt. Gen. H.S. Lidder, who heads the operational command of the three-tier command structure for counter-insurgency operations, for a first hand assessment of the situation and to take stock of the security measures.

The attackers had sophisticated weapons, which gave rise to suspicion that the incident was the work of a militant group.

Speaker Prithivi Majhi agreed to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's request to send an all-party delegation to the hill district to restore the confidence of the people. Describing the incident as a "heinous crime" the Karbi militant outfit, United People's Democratic Solidarity alleged that the attack was the handiwork of the Dimasa militant outfit, Dima Halam Daogah (DHD).

The DHD has denied involvement. "We are in no way involved in the incident. The only presence that we have in Karbi Anglong is in Dhansiri area where we have a designated camp. It is the Black Widow which is active in the area where these 22 people were killed," DHD's publicity secretary Daoraja told The Hindu over phone. The Black Widow is the breakaway faction of the DHD.

The UPDS rejected an invitation by the State Government for a direct dialogue with the DHD.

With Monday's killing, the death toll in the hill district in ethnic clashes since September 26 has gone up to 62 while the series of incidents of arson and armed attacks have rendered homeless thousands of people belonging to both the Karbi and the Dimasa tribes.

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