GUWAHATI, May 13 ? Proximity with districts and States facing serious problem of insurgency has made Cachar a vulnerable district and the terrain in the bordering areas also caused problems for the security forces. Police sources in Silchar told The Assam Tribune that Cachar?s neighbouring district of North Cachar Hills is hit by the activities of militant outfit Dima Halong Daogah (DHD) while several outfits including the National Socialist Council of Nagalim, PLA and UNLF are active in the neighbouring State of Manipur. The militants can sneak into Cachar by taking advantage of the terrain in the bordering areas. There was a time when the militants were quite active in the district, but due to strong anti-insurgency operations, the activities of the outfit have come down of late.
At one point of time, the tea gardens of Cachar were happy hunting grounds for the militants, but of late, the number of attacks on tea officials has also come down. But only a handful of gardens have engaged the Tea Plantation Security Force personnel and it is not possible for the police to guard each and every garden. This year, two tea officials were abducted by the NSCN militants but both of them were rescued by the security forces.
However, the DHD is still active in the areas bordering NC Hills. The Railway employees are forced to pay regularly to the outfit in the hill section of the Lumding-Badarpur section of the NF Railways as it is not possible to post permanent police pickets in all the stations and other offices. Police sources also revealed that the DHD has issued notices to some villages in the bordering areas including Thaligram, Saligram-Guabari etc. The notices, addressed to the village headmen demanded Rs 100 per head as tax for the peoples? supreme council of Dimaraji.
Another outfit, DYLE, suspected to have links with the MULTA, was nipped in the bud in Cachar yesterday following the arrest of eight members of the group and recovery of weapons at Kanakpur near Silchar town yesterday morning. The Cachar district has 36 km of international border with Bangladesh, of which only 10 km is land border and 26 km is reverine border. The possibility of infiltration of foreign nationals and ISI agents through the border has been reduced following the posting of the second line of defence along the border behind the Border Security Force. However, the district does not have any river police station till date and a proposal has been sent to the government for the setting up of a river police station, sources said.