Assam violence: Govt wants Bhutan's help to tackle NDFB(S); toll rises to 78

NDFB(S) is believed to have set up a few bases in the dense forest along the Indo-Bhutan border

In the wake of massacre of tribals in Assam by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) or NDFB(S), Home Minister Rajnath Singh has requested External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to seek help from Bhutan to tackle the banned militant group.

Singh spoke to Swaraj last night and requested her for immediate consultation with the authorities in the Himalayan nation, a Home Ministry official said.

NDFB is believed to have set up a few bases in the dense forest along the Indo-Bhutan border.

Officials said that whenever security forces carry out offensives against the NDFB, the cadres of the group often sneak into the Bhutanese territory making it difficult to track them down.

Meanwhile, violence continued for the second day today, with the toll rising to 78.

In worst affected Sonitpur district six more bodies were recovered this morning from Maitalu Basti under Zinzia police station bordering Arunachal Pradesh, taking the toll in attacks by NDFB(S) to 43 in the district and overall toll to 71, a police spokesman told PTI.

Three adivasis were killed in police firing during protests against the carnage yesterday.

In Kokrajhar, the other severely affected district, retaliatory violence by adivasis claimed the lives of four Bodos at Manikpur and Dimapur areas.

25 people were killed by militants in Kokrajhar and three in Chirang district.

Fresh incidents of violence have been reported this morning from Gossaigaon area in Kokrajhar where several houses of Bodos have been set ablaze by adivasis despite the indefinite curfew clamped in the entire district, he said.

Curfew has been also imposed in the affected areas of Sonitpur and Chirang districts along with parts of Dhubri and Baksa districts as precautionary measure, he added.

Taking tough, Singh today declared that strong action will be taken against NDFB(S), asserting that the Centre has "zero tolerance" policy for such "crafted terror".

"We will take strong measures to deal with the outfit and will control it effectively," he told reporters at Biswanath Chariali in Sonitpur district during his visit to review the situation in the state, which has been rocked by the bloodbath by Bodo militants and retaliatory violence by Adivasis.