Silchar, Dec. 28: The governments both at the Centre and in Assam have given the go ahead to the army to go for the recalcitrant DHD (Jewel)’s jugular and finish off the outfit.

The 57 Mountain Division, also known as the Red Shield Division, has now been assigned the overall responsibility to deliver a telling blow to the outfit commanded by Jewel Gorlosa, 39, in the North Cachar Hills district.

The DHD (J) has of late become a thorn in the flesh of both the governments after the DHD, the principal outfit among the Dimasa tribal militants, signed a truce with the governments in 2003 for a negotiated settlement of its key demand of carving out a Dimaraji state within the Indian Union.

A senior army official in Haflong, the headquarters of North Cachar Hills district, today said an army brigade posted in the district was told unequivocally to go all out against the DHD (J) taking the help from the CRPF and the BSF.

The idea behind this move, the official said, was to weaken the militants by mounting a series of raids on the hideouts of the Jewel Gorlosa gang and carrying out patrolling in the vulnerable areas.

The Centre is now not in a mood to initiate any peace dialogue with the faction led by Gorlosa, the expatriate leader of the breakaway DHD gang, that split from its 14-year old parent body now being commanded by Dilip Nunisa.

“We shall see about talks only after we have militarily softened them up; if they remain in any position to talk after that, that is,” the army official said.

In September, the DHD (J) had dangled a unilateral ceasefire, but the Centre was lukewarm at this proposal.

Security forces have carried out at least five raids on the hideouts and camps of the DHD (J) in December alone.

Yesterday, a DHD (J) rebel — a self-styled lance corporal — Jon Sing Dimasa, 20, was killed when the jawans of the 17 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles swooped on one such camp at Intangi under Kaladisha Kachari Basti on Assam’s border with Nagaland.The troops seized an AK-47 assault rifle, some ammunition and a wireless set from the camp.

The other rebels however, slipped into the adjoining dense jungles where the army was carrying out a follow-up operation.

On Thursday morning, another DHD (J) member was gunned down by Assam Rifles troops and he died at Khepre region on Assam-Nagaland border, about 130km from Haflong.

An AK-series rifle, 30 rounds of ammunition and a wireless set were seized from the camp.

Gorlosa and his deputy commander Niranjan Hojai are now in distant Kathmandu where they are now busy negotiating procurement of arms from former Maoists, sources said.

The DHD commander- in-chief Pranab Kumar Nunisa recently made it clear that his cadres were looking for this duo and if their hideouts could be located, then his marksmen would be ordered to capture both.

In the absence of Gorlosa from the Dimasa heartland of North Cachar, the task of carrying out the day-to-day functioning of the DHD (J) had now been vested in Daniel Dimasa, who recently had fled Haflong jail and now promoted to the post of the deputy commander of the DHD (J) army. The total strength of the DHD (J) is at present around 180.