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Train services were paralysed in Assam as several Bodo outfits resorted to a
12-hour railway blockade in Kokrajhar while violence continued for the third day in Karbi Anglong as ethnic groups stepped up their demand for a separate state on the lines of Telangana.
The All Bodo Student's Union along with prominent Bodo organisations, including the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Progressive), All Bodo Womens' Federation (ABWF), Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS), Bodo Peoples' Progressive Front (BPPF) and others squatted on railway tracks with placards at Kokrajhar Railway Station since early Friday morning with no trains either entering or leaving Kokrajhar.
Major trains like Up and Down Rajdhani Express, Saraighat Express, Kamrup Express, Brahmaputra Mail have been regulated at several stations including Guwahati, Bongaigaon, Rangiya and Alipurduar while five local trains have been cancelled, North East Frontier Railway sources said.
Tight security has been imposed in and around all railway stations in Lower Assam districts of Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Baksa, Nalbari and Kamrup.
Violence, meanwhile, continued in Karbi Anglong district with protestors setting ablaze a government vehicle at Nungpung, an electricity office and the handloom and textile departments at Hamrem, police said.
The police have arrested the President of Karbi Students' Association (KSA) Laiseng Engleng for allegedly inciting violence and seven others have been rounded up from Dokmoka area.
Image: Tight security has been imposed in Lower Assam