Mob attacks train passengers; police fire in air, clamp curfew

A mob here today attacked a train and pulled out passengers to stop them from continuing their journey during a 12-hour Dima Hasao district bandh following which police fired in the air to control the protesters in which 10 of them were injured, sources said.
The district administration sources said two among the 10 persons were critically injured in the firing and baton charge.
Indefinite curfew was imposed in the area as the situation deteriorated with the bandh sponsors pelting the police personnel with stones and attacking their vehicles near the station, they said.
Police first burst tear-gas shells and baton charged to control the mob at Maibong railway station, where they blocked the tracks and stopped the Silchar-bound train from Guwahati, a police official said.

But as the mob turned restive and attacked the train, damaged railway property and uprooted train tracks, the police fired in the air to disperse them.
The district deputy commissioner and superintendent of police with additional security personnel rushed to the area.

The train's passengers were evacuated and moved to nearby schools and provided food as the bandh hit normal life in the district and vehicles kept off the road, officials said.
The district administration said all the injured were admitted to hospital.
The bandh, which began at 5 am, also forced the closure of offices, educational institutions, shops, business establishments and markets as well as bank, they said.

The bandh was called by various organisations in Dima Hasao district in protest against the proposed inclusion of Dima Hasao in Greater Nagalim.
The bandh supporters also demanded an apology from the RSS organiser in the northeast, Jagadamba Mall, for his purported statement on inclusion of Dima Hasao in Greater Nagalim in the draft Naga accord between the rebels and the Centre.
Kailen Daulagupu, the president of Jadikhe Naiso Hosom (JNH), a Dimasa community apex body which is among the organisations which called the bandh, said it was also in protest against the lack of response from the authorities on the issue and demanded an apology from Mall for his statement.

He said that the organisations had submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner on their demands.
The JNH president also asked Mall to tender an apology and clarify his statement.
According to media reports, Mall had come up with a draft peace agreement which he claimed to have prepared after a thorough research of the people in the region and their sentiments for the last 45 years as experienced by him.
Besides JNH, the others who called the bandh Dimasa Student Union, All Dimasa Student Union, Dimasa Women Society and Dimasa Mothers Association.