Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 25
THE indefinite roadblock on NH 39 and 36 imposed by various Assam-based organizations in protest against alleged encroachment of Karbi territory by Naga villagers in the border areas of Daldali and Rangapahar Reserve Forest, passed off without any untoward incidents on the first on Tuesday.
Nagaland vehicles stayed off the two National Highways even as volunteers, mostly from student organizations based in Karbi Anglong, patrolled the highways to ensure that the blockade was a total success. All trains entering Nagaland were halted for six hours at Dhansiri, by the volunteers.
The student organizations who have enforced the indefinite highway blockade include Karbi Students’ Association, All Dimasa Students’ Union of Karbi Anglong, United Students’ Union of Karbi Anglong, Karbi Re-awakening Organization, among others. The volunteers assembled at Bokajan on National Highway 39 and at Manja on National Highway 36, to enforce the blockade. As of Tuesday evening, there were no indications or possibilities of the blockade being lifted anytime soon.
Calls made to the Bokajan as well as Dimapur administration to enquire on this latest turn of events in the border-tussle between Assam and Nagaland, went unanswered.
The organizations who called for the blockade had alleged that Naga people have “already encroached a large area of our forest land and it has become order of the day as they intrude, cur jungles, construct roads and houses etc.”
They went on to allege that when Assam police had asked “the encroachers to evict the area, they resort to fight back.” On February 22, they had alleged, “a large number of people from Nagaland entering the area under Daldali Forest reserve had erected a signboard that read ‘Government of Nagaland, Site for Horticulture.’”
The protestors went on to clarify that the intent of the blockade was not to harass the people of Nagaland. “But the civil bodies are being forced to adopt such measures owing to the inactive role of the government of Nagaland, and its patronage given to the encroachers,” they said in a statement.
A day after the call for indefinite road blockade by the Karbi-based organizations, the Dimapur administration had responded by way of promulgating 144 CrPC in and around Indisen village and Rilan village along the borders of Dimapur and Karbi Anglong districts.
