A suspected militant attacked seven trucks and set them afire after firing indiscriminately and setting them ablaze on Thursday night in Dima Hasao, Assam.

A man with a gun stopped the trucks around 8.30pm and opened fire indiscriminately at the trucks, including six trucks carrying cement and one loaded with coal.

“We have recovered five charred bodies they are mostly truck drivers and handymen. Identification is still going on,” said Superintendent of Police, Dima Hasao district, Jayant Singh, adding that as per intelligence inputs, militant outfit DNLA was behind the attack.

Om May 14^th, two people were killed in a grenade blast at Digboi in Tinsukia district. The ULFA (Independent) was suspected of carrying out the attack.

“Additional forces were rushed to the spot immediately after the (Thursday) incident and a combing operation is underway to nab those involved in the incident,” Singh said.

There is suspicion that the Dimasa National Liberation Army (DNLA) is responsible for the attack. The cement factory's refusal to submit to DNLA extortion demands is believed to have led to the incident.

Since its formation in 2019, the DNLA is striving to establish a "sovereign and independent nation" for the Dimasa, one of the earliest inhabitants of Assam's Brahmaputra Valley. Dimasas today live primarily in Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong, Cachar and Nagaon districts in Assam and parts of Nagaland. 

Even though Dima Hasao has been relatively peaceful for the last 10 years, it was once a hotbed for insurgency in the 1990s and 2000s, when the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council ruled the region.

In its statement, the DNLA claims to be fighting for the preservation of the Dimasa tribe's culture, language and to restore the kingdom, one of the earliest in the region. In the past, the Dima Halam Daogah and Black Widow rebel groups controlled the region, but they have now ceased to do so.

Various groups representing various communities have previously fought in Assam for sovereignty, separate states, or autonomous regions. Many of these groups, like the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, the United Liberation Front of Asom (pro-talks faction), gave up the armed struggle and have signed peace accords.

It was in May of this year, when six of the DNLA's top cadres were killed in a counter-insurgency operation by the Assam Police and Assam Rifles, that the DNLA took a major beating.

Image source: First post