Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki spoke to Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, and made a request to conduct an independent probe into the incident in Taraso in Balijan subdivision, which claimed the lives of ten persons and injured eight others last week. He expected a favourable response to the request.
Tuki told a group of local mediapersons, who called on him to hold discussions on steps to normalize the interstate problem arising out of the Taraso incident. However, Tuki's Assam counterpart Tarun Gogoi has demanded a CBI probe into the incident.
The team will inspect the area very soon, Tuki said, adding a similar team will also be constituted by the Home Ministry with representatives from Arunachal Pradesh to go into the crux of the racial remark that led to the death of Nido Tania in New Delhi.
It may be mentioned here that the economic blockade along NH-52 launched by various organizations in Sonitpur district of Assam since January 30 has created shortage of essential commodities besides affecting the day-to-day life in Arunachal Pradesh, particularly state capital Itanagar, which is considered a mini India, as people from all over India, including Assam, have been working and living peacefully in the state for decades.
It may be recalled that as far back as in 2012, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had in a letter to Tuki reiterated his faith in the historically friendly relations between the people of the two states.
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Referring to Tuki's concern over the activities of one Arunachal Agrasan Protirodh Samiti led by CPI (ML) activist Vivek Das, who had led a motorcycle rally in Taraso on May 16, 2012, Gogoi had said the Sonitpur district administration had responded proactively and office bearers and 'members of the samiti were being prosecuted under appropriate sections of the law.'
Emphasizing the need for coordination among the district level officials on either side of the boundary to diffuse tension created by such incidents, Gogoi had assured Tuki of 'proactive measures from the State of Assam for maintaining peace and harmony in the boundary areas.'
On the reported physical assault of a local youth in Sonitpur district today, when contacted, SP Sanjuktra Parasar informed that after the incident in Dipik area, the police intervened immediately and rushed him for medical treatment.
A case has been registered and the culprits will be brought to book soon, he added.
Asked about the economic blockade, she said that most of the vehicles were allowed passage today, and that the remaining few would travel to their destinations tomorrow.
While numerous NGOs have called for immediate end to the ongoing economic blockade, former MP Kiren Rijiju in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said even as an Arunachalee student became a victim of racially motivated attack in Delhi, 'Arunachal Pradesh is suffering under the economic blockade enforced by anti-Arunachal elements in Assam.'
Expressing surprise over the Centre's silence even a week of the blockade, Rijiju urged Singh to take steps to ensure the return of normalcy in the region.
'As the PM of India as well as an MP representing the NE region, we have high hopes and expectation from you at this moment of grief and agony. Arunachal is a sensitive state, yet its people are facing the terrible brunt of economic blockade,' Rijiju wrote.
Several organizations, including the Patanjali Yog Samiti and Swadhesi Jagaran Manch of Sonitpur district of Assam, and the Nepali Sanskriti Surakcha Parishad (NSSP) and Hamoro Swabhiman Pranthi of Arunachal and Assam condemned the Taraso violence today and urged the chief ministers both states to find out a lasting solution to the boundary dispute.
