Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday ruled out any dialogue or talks with the National Democratic Front of Boroland (Songbijit) and announced that there would be only action against the outfit, which massacred 67 innocent Adivasi villagers in Assam’s Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts.
The Union Home Minister said that the Centre wanted a time-bound action against NDFB (Songbijit) and would extend all help to the State Government to launch a full scale operation. Army help would also be extended, if needed, he added. The Centre has already provided to the State Government 50 companies of Central Armed Police Forces.
“There should be a time bound action. We should not (the operation) drag it for a long time,” said Mr Singh while addressing a press conference here after visiting violence-hit Kokrajhar and Sonitpur districts where the NDFB (Songbijit) massacred 67 Adivasi villagers—37 in Sonitpur and 30 in Kokrajhar districts. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Joel Oram also accompanied him.
Act of terror
“The massacre of downtrodden, innocent Adivasis by the NDFB (Songbijit) should not be undermined as an ordinary incident of militancy, it is an act of terror,” he said and added that there can be no dialogue with an outfit which indulged in a barbaric and terror attack of thrusting the barrel of an automatic rifle into the mouth of a five-month old infant and killing.
The Union Home Minister said that Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had informed him on telephone on Thursday that the Central Government has sought cooperation from Bhutan and Myanmar and the neighbouring countries had assured to extend cooperation. Assam Police say that the NDFB (Songbjit) has its camps in Myanmar while its cadres also hide in jungles in Bhutan.
Challenge to nation
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken the incident very seriously and announced ex-gratia of Rs. two lakh to next of kin of each victim. Assam Government has also announced ex-gratia of Rs. five lakh to each victim family. Describing the incident as “a challenge to nation” the Union Home Minister said that the Central government has a clear policy of “zero tolerance” towards terrorism.
Mr Singh said announced that the National Investigation Agency would probe the incident and Assam Chief Minister had also given his consent for the probe. The probe would unearth the nexus of the NDFB (Songbijit) with other forces, he added.
He cautioned that attempts had been made by some vested forces to turn the incident of terror attack to ethnic clashes and called for resisting such attempts. “The terrorists have no caste, no religion, no faith. Terrorists are terrorists,” he added.
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