GUWAHATI (TIP):
Two people were killed and at least seven were injured in Golaghat town in Assam on Wednesday after police fired to stop an armed mob of thousands from attacking a police station. The administration clamped an indefinite curfew in Golaghat district and called out the Army to help restore peace and normalcy. “The Army has been called out this evening to assist the district administration in restoring normality,” state home secretary G D Tripathi said. “The Army has staged a flag march in Golaghat and other places.”

The mob beat up an assistant sub-inspector and a constable before attempting to storm the Sadar police station in retaliation to Tuesday’s police lathicharge on people to clear the economic blockade imposed by different groups on NH-39 in the district against Nagaland. The mob also torched at least eight police vehicles on the highway, besides a few goods-carrying trucks stranded since August 14 due to the economic blockade.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi said the government would institute a judicial inquiry into Wednesday’s police firing by a retired high court judge. On August 12 and 13, Naga miscreants, aided by NSCN (IM) cadres, raided several border villages in Assam, killing 14 villagers and setting hundreds of houses on fire. Tripathi said Gogoi and Nagaland chief minister T R Zeliang would meet in Guwahati on Thursday to defuse the situation on the border.

Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju is also scheduled to be present at the meeting along with DoNER minister Lt-Gen (retd) V K Singh, who arrived in the city on August 21. The border dispute between the two states is awaiting a solution from the Supreme Court after Assam filed a petition in 1988, seeking a settlement. While the Assam government wants no change in the current border demarcation, which is a constitutional boundary, Nagaland refuses to accept this and instead wants to follow the historical boundary that was demarcated before the colonial rule.