RailEnquiry

The toll from sporadic ethnic clashes between Bodos and Muslims has risen to 18, even as ten additional companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) are being dispatched to maintain law and order in the violence-hit areas. The Assam Government has issued an alert notice to 10 districts on the North bank of the River Brahmaputra to avert any possible disturbance in the wake of ongoing violence in Kokrajhar and Chirang districts. Earlier in the day, a mob stopped Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Express. All passengers are reported to be safe, but railway tracks are still being blocked. The train was stopped between Gosaigaon and Kokrajhar. The army and police are keeping a strict vigil in Kokrajhar and Chirang districts that have seen ethnic clashes between Bodos and immigrant communities since Friday. A DIG-ranked police official and three others have also been injured in a mob attack. Night curfew has been imposed with Section 144 of the CrPC in force in the district till further orders, Deputy Commissioner, Kokrajhar, Donald Gilfellon said here on Monday. About 50,000 villagers fled their homes and took shelter in relief camps, a senior civil servant in the district informed, adding that 37 camps were set up to help the refugees and more would be opened if needed. Four activists of former militant outfit Bodo Liberation Tigers were shot dead by unidentified persons in Joypur area under Kokrajhar police. In retaliation, armed Bodos attacked Muslims, suspecting them to be behind the killings. Police said unidentified groups set ablaze houses, schools, and vehicles, firing indiscriminately from automatic weapons in populated areas. The body of a six-month-old child was found by villagers on a riverbank along with the body of a woman on Sunday.