Statewide red alert in Arunachal

The Arunachal Pradesh government has sounded a statewide red alert in view of the mass killings and combing operations launched by the paramilitary forces to nab the culprits in neighbouring Assam. 

State Chief Minister Mukut Mithi said that all the district authorities had been alerted in the State to keep a strong vigil on the situation and be in readiness to face any eventuality. Mr. Mithi also expressed deep shock over what he termed as the "senseless killing" of 28 Hindi-speaking people in Assam. He said that the killings by suspected ULFA militants "might be a well planned design of the ISI to drive out non-Assamese-speaking people from the State in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections". 

Mr. Mithi admitted that there were some hideouts of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) inside the Arunachal territory, but said the ULFA "were changing their camps very frequently. Paramilitary forces recently raided some hideouts of ULFA in Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh without much success". "ULFA’s intelligence may be more effective than ours and they manage to escape before every raid," he stated. 

Referring to the Tirap and Changlang districts’ latest situation where kidnapping, extortion and even killings are reported between both factions of the underground NSCN (K) and NSCN (I-M), Mr. Mithi said 95 per cent of these underground elements were from outside Arunachal Pradesh. 

"They are using these two districts of the State as corridors to cross over to Myanmar from neighbouring States like Nagaland and Assam. Our people will have to stop engaging these underground elements for their personal gain or political benefit," he said. 

The Chief Minister admitted that these underground elements had been extorting government employees by enforcing ‘taxes’ in these two districts at the rate of 24 per cent of their salaries. "They even know how much funds have been sanctioned against a particular project or scheme in these two districts and are demanding their shares out of that project," he said.