The Hill Queen of Assam once again turned tense on the eve of the autonomous council election. It all started when seven CRPF jawans were killed in an ambush by unknown militants in North Cachar Hill district on November 2 around 11 am. The militants belonging to the Black Widow group struck again on November 3 killing four persons, including Congress candidate for the ensuing polls for the North Cachar Hill Autonomous Council. Three among them, including Congress candidate, belong to the Hmar community.
The militants also managed to take away two carbines and 140 rounds of ammunition from the PSOs of the Congress candidate. On November 8 about one thousand people of the Hmar community participated in a peace rally and demanded CBI enquiry into the killings.
In another incident on November, five persons were abducted from the nearest districts by the same group of extremists. And a student organisation of the Dimasa community, All Dimasa Student Union (ADSU) gave a call for 36-hour strike from November 6 (6 a.m.) to November 7 (6 p.m.) demanding a separate state for Dimasa covering a major part of districts Cachar, Nogaon and Dimapur. NC Hill and Karbi Anglong is the centre.
The strike has affected the normal life of NC Hills and three hours before the ending of the strike, the picketers burnt Bugeta, a railway station near Halflong Station.
Basically most of the Hmar community members belong to Christianity and the Dimasas are Hindus. A few years ago a communal riot took place among the people of these communities and many people were killed and houses burnt.
To some extent communal tension has been prevailing here for the last few months. This situation has been created due to the increase of five new seats in Autonomous Council. Among these three are reserved for non-Dimasas and two for general. The Black Widow, a Dimasa terrorist group, did not like it. On this issue there were serious conflict between the Black Widow and the Autonomous Council which caused the killing of the acting Chief Executive member Purnendu Langthasa and Executive member Nindu Langthasa of the Council early this year that led to the postponement of the polls of the council. Some people opine that the killing of the Hmar candidate is the expression of the Black Widow’s wrath against Non-Dimasa. It may re-fuel the communal tension among the Hmars and Dimasas.
But the police do not support the view as they think that Black Widow of Dimasa and Hmar People’s Convention, a terrorist group of Hmar, are operating jointly and the latest incidents are of their handiwork.