Guwahati, Apr 3 : The Border Security Force (BSF) has deployed one more battalion in North Cachar Hills to exclusively guard personnel engaged in the railway gauge conversion project.
Two battalions of the central paramilitary force are already engaged in counter-insurgency operations in NC Hills and Karbi Anglong.
“We held a series of meetings with the Railways recently and decided to deploy one more battalion in NC Hills to provide exclusive protection to the personnel engaged in the gauge conversion work,” inspector-general of the BSF (Assam and Nagaland frontier), P.K. Mishra, said today. He was attending a surrender ceremony at the 128 National Disaster Response Force headquarters of the paramilitary force at Patgaon.
A Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front militant, Nelson Phangcho alias Aklam Timung, laid down arms before Mishra today. Nelson, who was the bodyguard of the commander-in-chief of the outfit, Somja Timung, deposited a 9mm pistol with a magazine and two rounds of ammunition.
The gauge conversion project in the hill district of Assam has been declared a national project. However, work is often interrupted with militants, particularly of the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the Dima Halam Daogah, targeting officials of the North East Frontier Railway and those of private companies engaged in the project.
Telegraph India
