2 people die, 1,000 train passengers stranded in Dima Hasao district over Greater Nagaland protests

GUWAHATI: Two of the nine protesters injured in Thursday’s police firing at Maibong railway station in Assam’s Dima Hasao district succumbed to their injuries even as more than 1,000 train passengers remained stranded at New Haflong railway station on Friday.

An indefinite curfew clamped in Maibong police station areas continued on Friday. A 12-hour Dima Hasao bandh was called on Thursday, but the entire district remained shut even on Friday. The bandh was called by some tribal organisations after a news portal reported that the hill district would be integrated with the proposed “Nagalim” or “Greater Nagaland” as part of a peace agreement between the Centre and Naga insurgents.

On Thursday, two passenger trains running between Silchar and Guwahati were stranded at Maibong and New Haflong. The train stopped by the protesters at Maibong resumed its journey along with the passengers on Thursday night, but the other remained stranded.The police had opened fire on Thursday at Maibong to disperse the protesters, who allegedly attempted to set the train and the railway station on fire.

The district authorities said the train at New Haflong would leave shortly, but Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) said it would resume its journey only after the state government provided a written security clearance. “We are ensuring security and the train will soon resume its journey,” Dima Hasao Deputy Commissioner Debojyoti Hazarika told The New Indian Express. Asked



about the passengers going hungry due to the shutdown, he said, “We are doing a minimum arrangement for food”. Some locals said the passengers would die of starvation from Saturday if they remained stranded.

The railways said the stranded train would not move until a security clearance was received from the state government.“The locomotive at New Haflong is disabled. So we have to send another from Badarpur. But we will do this only when we get a written security clearance from the government. If not, the train will not move. We can run it, but if something happens on the way, who will take the responsibility?” argued NFR chief spokesman Pranabjyoti Sarma.

Asked why the NFR had cancelled a train in which the railway board chairman was scheduled to visit Haflong on Thursday for an inspection, but ran the two passenger trains, Sarma said, “The railways can cancel the visit of the chairman, but not a passenger train. The chairman’s visit is not a routine movement, train movement is.”

How trouble broke out at Maibong

The Trouble began on Thursday after a passenger train arrived at Maibong station. The protesters blocked its onward movement by squatting on the tracks. Assam’s DGP, Mukesh Sahay, said the protesters tried to attack the train and the railway station, and burnt furniture. To restore order, policemen fired tear gas shells, but when they were attacked with stones, they opened fire, injuring nine people.