Silchar, March 27: The internecine clashes between rival factions of the Dimasa militant outfit, the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD), claimed yet another victim last night.
A frontline insurgent leader of the Dilip Nunisa faction of the DHD, the principal group of the Dimasa outfit, was gunned down near Langting-Hathikhali under Maibong block in North Cachar Hills district.
Sources in the security forces confirmed last night that the assailants belonged to the rival Jewel Gorlosa faction. They shot dead the Maibong area operational commander of the DHD (Dilip), self-styled Lt Dijong Dimasa, one of their long-standing targets.
Sources added that militants of the Jewel faction spotted Dijong while he was on his way to keep an appointment with a well-wisher in the area.
The Jewel faction had started keeping tabs on Dijong very recently. The gang’s sharpshooters were on the lookout for him in the jungles of Maibong.
Dijong was in charge of clandestine collection of funds in Maibong, which the breakaway faction resented.
The turf war between these two rival factions in the strategic Maibong area has intensified during the past few months, with the Jewel faction displaying its growing determination to root out Dilip’s followers from this block.
Intelligence agencies now apprehend that such rivalry over their consolidation of areas under their command would gather further momentum in the coming months since the Dilip Nunisa faction of the DHD would be itching for vengeance.
At the same time, North Cachar Hills district police have come down hard on the extortion campaign by co-ordinating with Cachar police their raids on rebel hideouts spread over these districts. The police recently rounded up an NSCN (I-M) activist at Haflong. They also picked up one Rajesh Barman, said to be the Cachar district commander of the DHD (Dilip), from Madura area on the district’s border with North Cachar Hills.
The Dilip Nunisa-led DHD has been maintaining a ceasefire with the security forces and has a cadre strength of around 800.
There are 125 rebels under the sway of the rival DHD (Jewel), which broke away from the parent DHD four years ago.
