Bodos moving to safer places after the violence in Kokrajhar in Assam on Thursday (Press Trust of India photo)
The houses here are all empty; their inhabitants have fled. Most of the houses have been burnt down.
Balidonga, a village in northern Assam, once had a mixed population of Bodos and tribals. But that ended nearly 72 hours ago, when over 30 people, mostly women and children, were gunned down by members of a breakaway faction of the banned militant group National Democratic Front of Bodoland.
The killings and the counter-killings have left over 70 people dead. The tribals have fled to makeshift relief camps, while the Bodo villagers have moved to areas close to the Arunachal Pradesh - Assam border, where they are more in number.
As we drove towards Balidonga today morning, what appeared to be a trickle of people soon became a deluge of fleeing villagers. They carried with them whatever little they could - a sack or a bucket full of grains, some utensils and clothes.
"Bodo houses have been burnt; now Bodos are regrouping. The police haven't reached, so we are fleeing," said Romanuz Maradi, as he pushed a bicycle loaded with sacks of grain, a bundle of clothes and some household items. He was taking the items - including an unwilling goat tethered to the cycle handle - to a makeshift shelter.
But some of the villagers had decided to stay back. They carried 21st century communication devices - mobile phones - but were armed with the most primitive weapons, bows and arrows.
Groups of armed men had gathered at a site considered vulnerable to strikes by Bodo militants.
"We don't have guns, but we have to protect the people who are leaving. So we have positioned ourselves at vantage points. At least the fear that some could be killed by an arrow should deter them," said Guman, who was leading a group of ten other men, who were armed with bows, arrows and a machete.
Though large numbers of policemen and army personnel have been deployed across the violence-hit districts, there are not enough security personnel to cover far-flung hamlets.
A little distance away from Balidonga, we came across a section of Assam police, comprising nearly 30 men. Some were armed with SLR rifles, which have been decommissioned about a decade ago.
Posted in the nearby mountains, they were ordered to move from their positions, from where they had to trek nearly 20 kilometres to reach the affected villages.
"My feet have swollen up so much that I can't keep my boots on anymore," said one of them.
The section had been tasked to cover an area of several square kilometers, but no provisions had been made to provide them with food or water. A dirty puddle was the only source of water for these men.
A little distance away, at one of the burnt huts, a Bodo family was trying to save whatever it could from the ashes.
"Police asked us to move out yesterday but we couldn't protect our houses. Now the tribals, Nepali and Karbis have ganged up against us and the administration is on their side," they alleged.
The tribals, who have taken refuge in make-shift shelters in the town of Biswanth Charali, had similar complaints.
"Till now, the police have not reached our villages. Many haven't been able to escape. And our houses are still being torched. Do they want to kill all tribals," asked Matal Basi.
As we moved out of Biswanth Charali, one thing seemed to be clear: the latest cycle of violence has further increased the divide in an already fractured society, and the walk to normalcy and peace will be a long one.