Stranded passengers at Guwahati railway station during the 'Rail Roko' protests by Bodo student activists
With the army on flag march in Assam, the rubber estate and a house of Congress MP were set ablaze, while four persons were injured in police firing, as the demand for separate states on the lines of Telangana by several groups was stepped up today.
The army staged a flag march in violence-hit Karbi Anglong district in the afternoon after being called in by the civil administration, official sources said.
Train services across the state were affected by a 12-hour rail blockade called by different Bodo organisations to demand a separate Bodoland. Protesters removed six kilometre of railway tracks in the Diphu-Lumding section, but it was restored later though train services were yet to resume.
The MP Biren Singh Engti's rubber garden and house, about seven kilometre from Diphu, was set on fire by miscreants who also felled trees, the sources said.
There was no casualty as there was nobody in the house of the Congress MP, who represents the Autonomous Hill district constituency, at the time.
The police opened fire in the district to disperse a mob in which four persons were injured with the condition of two stated to be critical, the sources said.
At Donkamakom under Hamrem sub-division a mob ransacked a police outpost and attacked policemen demanding the release of seven arrested youths, they said.
A post office and an office of the hand-loom and textile department at Dolamara and a PHED office in Howraghat were attacked, the sources said.
Also set ablaze was a bus of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council and a PWD inspection bungalow at Umlalfera area.