Author: United News
Of India
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: September 14,
2000
At least 10 policemen
were killed and four, including an Additional Superintendent of Police,
seriously injured when suspected NSCN (I-M) ultras ambushed a police convoy
near Diphu in Assam's Karbi Anglong district today.The NSCN (I-M) struck
within days of the Centre's rejection of the outfit's demand for extending
the area of the cease-fire to all Naga areas of the region.
``There is strong indication
that the NSCN masterminded the ambush, keeping in view its firepower and
concentration in the area. The entire covoy has been destroyed,''
said a top official from Diphu, headquarters of the trouble-torn Karbi
Anglong district.
The police convoy, comprising
four vehicles, was returning from Barlangphar, about 20 km from violence-battered
Diphu, after apprehending suspected extremists, when the NSCN (IM) militants
sprayed it with bullets for more than 10 minutes from automatic weapons,
killing all the policemen on the spot and critically injuring four.
Sources said it was the
handiwork of the NSCN; its frontal militant organisation, United People's
Democratic Solidarity, was active in the district.
The convoy was led by
the ASP, who is now battling for his life at the Diphu civil hospital along
with two constables and one civilian. The whereabouts of the detained
militant, who was in the convoy, is not yet known. The militants
walked up to the convoy after the firing and decamped with all the weapons
and the walkie-talkie of the ASP.
This attack assumes significance
because on September 11 the Centre's representative for the Naga talks,
K Padmanabhiah, had informed NSCN Chairman Issak Swu that their demand
for extending the cease-fire to all the Naga areas in the north-east could
not be accepted.
