Even as violence returned to Dima Hasao erstwhile North Cachar Hill district of Assam in the form of killing of a top militant leader and torching of villages,a 99-year-old man was killed when armed militants fired upon residents of a village hardly 30 km from the district headquarters,early on Sunday. Official sources in Haflong,the district headquarters,said armed miscreants burnt down at least 19 houses in two villages Gaijem and Jiri in the wee hours on Sunday,leaving at least four injured. The deceased,who sustained multiple bullet injuries,has been identified as Thainsring Daolagupu. The miscreants used sophisticated weapons. We have found empty cartridges of AK-47 weapons from the villages where the incidents occurred around 4 am today, a senior official in the district said over the telephone from Haflong. While the hill district had remained relatively peaceful after the two major militant groups had entered into ceasefire modes with the government two years ago,violence was triggered off last Thursday when unidentified assailants gunned down James Dimasa,a senior leader of the Jewel Garlosa faction of Dima Halam Daoga (DHD). The DHD(J) is currently in ceasefire. Miscreants subsequently set on fire several houses in Jebrangbasti village the same evening,with Hill Tiger Force (HTF),a recently floated militant group,claiming responsibility for the attacks. The police,which attributed Sundays attacks too to the HTF,meanwhile,have arrested six persons for their suspected links with this group. The hill district had witnessed large-scale violence for three consecutive years till the two DHD factions signed ceasefire agreements with the government in 2009. The two factions had indulged in a series of abductions and murders,mostly committed for the purpose of extorting money,and work on two national projects construction of the Lumding-Silchar broad gauge railway track and the Nagaon-Silchar portion of East-West Corridor had come to a grinding halt between 2007 and 2009.
