Women protest on the railway tracks in Karbi Anglong on Tuesday as part of the 36-hour bandh. Picture by UB Photos

Jan. 18: The bandh called by the Joint Action Committee of Dimaraji Movement in Dima Hasao district and its adjoining Dimasa-inhabited tracts of Cachar and Karbi Anglong districts disrupted normal life in those areas today.

The 36-hour bandh, that began at 5am, has been called to press for a Dimaraji state comprising the entire Dima Hasao district with some areas of Cachar, Nagaon and Karbi Anglong.

The Joint Action Committee of Dimaraji Movement is a forum that has been deriving tacit support for a separate Dimaraji state within the Indian Union from the pro-talks DHD (Nunisa faction) since 1996.

According to official reports from adjoining Dima Hasao district, shops downed shutters as the central and state government offices mostly remained closed because of picketing by bandh volunteers. Educational institutions also remained closed in the district.

The bandh also affected movement of trains.

Superintendent of police, Cachar, P.K. Bhuyan, today said the bandh had particularly affected Dholai and Udarbond blocks of the district as the Dimaraji volunteers put up blockades with tree logs and human barricades to disrupt traffic.

He said police pickets were set up and mobile patrols used in Cachar’s three Dimasa-inhabited blocks which also includes Kathigorah on the district’s boundary with Meghalaya.

Movement of vehicles on the district’s national highways 44 and 54 (linking the district with Meghalaya and Mizoram) has considerably thinned.

“If the government in New Delhi or Dispur wants a solution, that could be reached within a minute; but nobody wants a solution… and this delay has led to the present chaos,” the joint action committee’s chief convenor Sanmoni Kemprai said in Haflong.

“Today’s bandh is our new series of democratic movement. Before January 26 a 12-member team representing our organisation will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding an immediate solution of the issue. We will organise a dharna in Guwahati on February 2,” Kemprai said.

“In December last year, we held three rounds of discussion with the Centre’s interlocutor P.C. Haldar, but it failed because of their indifference towards our main demand: Dimaraji. In 2008, we placed before them the proposal of a territorial council covering the entire NC Hills (now known as Dima Hasao district) and Dimasa-dominated geographical areas of Cachar, Nagaon and Karbi Anglong. The authorities are yet to respond,” DHD chief Dilip Nunisa said.

The Nunisa-led mother faction of the Dimasa militant group has held several rounds of political dialogue with New Delhi on its main issue since it signed the ceasefire with the Centre in 2003.

“We feel that the government as well as the political system deprive us of justice, but it is clear like the light of the day that we will not stop unless our dream Dimaraji is announced,” Nunisa said.

Haldar had proposed the creation of Dima Hasao territorial council during discussions with DHD (J)’s commander-in-chief Jewel Gorlosa and deputy commander Daniel Dimasa in Guwahati on January 5.

Kemprai had said the creation of the council would not fulfil the aspirations of the Dimasas and they would vehemently oppose the move. He said that instead of talking to only one faction, the Centre should hold discussions with all the parties associated with the Dimaraji movement. “Holding discussions with one faction seems to be part of the government’s divide-and-rule policy. It will complicate the problem instead of solving it,” he had said.