Guwahati:
After 10 days of relative silence, violence has once again broken out in lower Assam, which was ravaged by ethnic clashes last month. Four bodies - two in Chirang district and two in Kokrajhar - were recovered yesterday taking the toll to 63 in the ethnic clashes.
Curfew has been declared in Chirang and paramilitary forces are out. The Army is conducting flag marches in the area.
Three people had on Saturday left the camp for displaced persons at Kawatika village in Chirang district. Yesterday, two of them were found dead with stab wounds, while the third returned. Additional forces have been rushed to the area, where security personnel are still deployed.
The situation in lower Assam had been tense since early July, when two Bengali-speaking Muslim settlers were killed. Two more were killed on July 19, but the police failed to identify the killers. On July 20, four former Bodo Liberation Tigers men were killed. The Bodos retaliated by attacking Bengali-speaking settlers and the clashes began.
Night curfew continues in Kokrajhar and Chirang, which are part of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts, and Dhubri, which is outside it.
(With PTI inputs)