Guwahati, May 17 : Militant leader Jewel Gorlosa’s flip-flop on calling unilateral ceasefire continued as Assam police today said they had reports that his faction of the Dima Halam Daogah would call a truce a day after it massacred 11 people in the North Cachar Hills district.
The police said they were “verifying the authenticity” of the news.
The outfit called a unilateral ceasefire on March 25 but called it off after 12 of their own men were allegedly killed by the army. The army owned up to the encounter but failed to locate a single body.
Speaking to The Telegraph, inspector-general of police (special branch), Khagen Sarmah, said, “I have heard that they have declared a ceasefire. We are looking into it,” he said. The police would watch the outfit’s “behaviour” in the coming days to ascertain the veracity of the report, he added.
However, a section of the police topbrass described the news of “Jewel Gorlosa truce” as “too good to be true” apparently going by its past record.
Police sources described the attacks as “retaliatory”, adding, “the outfit had already declared a unilateral ceasefire but was forced to display its firepower after the killing of its cadres. It was a forced interim act and after its mission was accomplished, the outfit might now have decided to return to its unilateral ceasefire declared on March 25,” a source said.
The NF Railway Mazdoor Union today observed a black day in all the divisional headquarters and also took out a silent rally with hundreds of its members at its Maligaon headquarters, seeking adequate security to personnel engaged in the gauge conversion.
Sources claiming to be close to the DHD (J) quoted the outfit’s publicity secretary, Faiphang Dimasa, to say that all its operations have been stopped from today. He, however, said no work on the gauge conversion and East-West corridor projects in the district would be allowed till the ceasefire was formalised.
A senior home department official said it was in constant touch with the railways and impressing upon it to resume normal services as a series of “counter-insurgency as well as protective measures” have been initiated by the government, the official said. He has also heard about the DHD (J) announcing a cessation of hostilities, he added.
“We cannot react as we have only heard.”
The bloodbath, however, continued in the district. A former councillor of the North Cachar district autonomous council belonging to the minority Biate minority tribal community was shot dead at 10am today by unknown gunmen in his village of Siampui, about 4km from Haflong town. He has been identified as J.T. Namlam, 65, according to the police in Haflong.
Telegraph India
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