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Violence continued to rock Assam’s Karbi Anglong district for the fifth day on Sunday over the demand for a separate state with government offices and properties of political leaders torched and curfew reimposed after a relaxation of four hours.
Police said the office of the additional chief engineer of irrigation department and the Khadi Board office, equipment and machineries of public works department in Diphu besides a forest beat office at Amri, a land records office at Long-e-Kur, were set ablaze by agitators.
A teak plantation of Congress MP from Autonomous Hill districts Biren Singh Engti and a rubber plantation of a Karbi Autonomous Council Executive Member D Uffing Maslai were also set on fire. Engti's rubber estate was earlier torched by protesters on Friday last.
Karbi Anglong district administration reimposed the curfew, on since Wednesday, after relaxing it between 8 am and 12 pm. Activists of different organisations have been agitating for a separate state on the lines of Telangana.
Meanwhile, the 100-hour hills district bandh in Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao, called by Hills State Democratic Party and scheduled to begin on Monday, has been deferred in view of the prevailing situation in Karbi Anglong. HSDP spokesman Daniel Teron in a release appealed to all sections of the hill people to maintain peace and calm.
An all-party meeting, attended by representatives of the Congress, HSDP, Nationalist Congress Party and Bharatiya Janata Party also appealed to the people to end violence and restore peace following which their demands would be discussed and resolved.
A delegation of Asom Gana Parishad leaders, comprising MP Joseph Toppo and former ministers Utpal Bora and Atul Bora (Junior), held a meeting with local organisations and appealed that violence be stopped and protesters press their demand in a democratic manner. They also asked opposition parties to play a more proactive role in ending violence.
Image: Protestors set on fire government offices in Diphu, Assam