Indian soldiers launch anti-insurgency operation in Assam
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Guwahati, India, Dec 5, IRNA
India-Assam-Army operation
Federal soldiers have launched a massive anti-insurgency operation in India's violence-torn northeastern state of Assam, where 100 people have been killed and 50,000 displaced in two months of ethnic clashes, officials on Monday said.
A government spokesman said artillery and infantry soldiers conducting the offensive were ordered to shoot on sight anybody involved in incidents of arson or attacks in the eastern district of Karbi Anglong, 320 kilometers from Assam's main city of Guwahati.
"The operation began Sunday night and is now going on in full swing. The idea is to quell the violence in the region," Karbi Anglong District Magistrate G D Tripathi told IRNA.
The hill district of Karbi Anglong has been witnessing a violent turf war between the majority Karbi and Dimasa tribes which has claimed 100 lives since clashes broke out in October.
Rebel groups representing the two ethnic communities have targeted civilians and set ablaze some 2,500 homes belonging to rival tribesmen.
More than 50,000 people, a majority of them Karbis, had fled their homes and took shelter in government-run makeshift shelters.
The Assam government Sunday decided to hand over command to the army following the killing of 12 Karbi villagers in separate incidents in the past week.
Police suspect the outlawed Dima Halam Daogah (DHD), a rebel group fighting for a separate homeland for the Dimasa tribe in eastern Assam, of masterminding the recent killings.
The DHD has been operating a ceasefire with New Delhi since 2003.
"Ceasefire does not mean that the rebels could carry out violent strikes with impunity and if we find DHD rebels indulging in violence we are not going to spare them," an army commander said requesting anonymity.
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