AJYCP activists burn the effigy of chief minister Tarun Gogoi at Mariani on Saturday. Picture by Mousam Agarwalla

Jorhat, May 25: Assam agriculture and parliamentary affairs minister Nilamoni Sen Deka today visited Mariani town in Jorhat district to take stock of the situation as tension prevails over Thursday’s alleged abduction of two tea labourers and the attack on a third late last evening by villagers from Nagaland.

The third labourer of Naginijan tea estate, Carlos Kheria, was allegedly attacked when he was grazing cattle along the inter-state border. He was admitted to Jorhat Medical College and Hospital last night where two labourers of the garden, Atul Kurmi and Ranjit Nayak, who were allegedly beaten up by the abductors, are already undergoing treatment. They were handed over to Mariani police in the wee hours yesterday by Nagaland authorities.

The abductions had triggered a violent protest at Mariani yesterday, with local legislator Rupjyoti Kurmi and the Assam Tea Tribes Students Association (ATTSA) demanding immediate arrest of the culprits. Two persons from Nagaland were injured and two vehicles coming from the neighbouring state were damaged as the protesters lobbed stones at them.

The protest intensified after a jawan of the CRPF, deployed to control the situation, manhandled Kurmi.

As a blockade put up by ATTSA on the Mariani-Mokokchung road entered its second day today, the Mokokchung district administration in Nagaland cautioned its residents to avoid the Mariani and Amguri routes till the situation returned to normal.

In Mariani, Deka visited Naginijan tea estate and Jorhat Medical College and Hospital. He ordered deputation of a police picket at Naginijan for the safety of Assamese villagers residing along the inter-state border. He also said action would be taken against the CRPF jawan who manhandled Kurmi. The police have registered a case on the basis of an FIR filed by Kurmi against the jawan.

The officer in-charge of Mariani police station, M. Ali, was transferred to the police reserve today as an immediate action against yesterday’s incident.

Deka also held discussions with ATTSA representatives. He assured them of all necessary steps to book the abductors but they continued with the blockade, saying that they would lift it only after the culprits were arrested.

The ATTSA also demanded that an eviction drive along the border areas where villagers from Nagaland have set up a rubber plantation inside Assam territory. It also requested a border outpost at Naginijan.

The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) burnt an effigy of chief minister Tarun Gogoi at Mariani today in protest against the government’s failure to protect Assamese people residing along the Assam-Nagaland border.

Villagers of Charing-Nakpa in Mokokchung district today said the action of the villagers in taking the two labourers into custody for encroaching upon land belonging to Nagaland should not be construed as kidnapping. “The two encroachers were handed over to the police for necessary action,” a statement released by the village council said.

The statement said the Nagas have a close relation with Assamese people, especially the Ahoms, since time immemorial but illegal migrants are making things difficult by encroaching upon their land.

The village council appealed to residents of Naginijan, Nakachari and Mariani in Assam not to resort to false allegations as it would disturb peace in the area. They also warned that any encroacher caught by the villages in future would be dealt with according to the customary law of the land.