Suspected militants set nine oil tankers loaded with crude oil on fire at a place near Namchik border police check gate along Assam Arunachal border on Tuesday evening. The tankers coming from Kharsang were en route to Digboi. However, there was no casualty in the attack.
Official sources told Northeast Now, “The crude oils were being transported from the oil site being operated jointly by Kharsang based Geo and Pro and Oil India Limited Duliajan at Kharsang camp located in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh around twenty Kilometers from Jagun in Tinsukia district of upper Assam.
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The miscreants assaulted the drivers and snatched their mobile phones. Fire tenders from Digboi, Duliajan, Margherita and Kharsang were pressed into action.
“We are shocked and the news came like a bolt from the blue,” one of the top officials of the EPA Digboi, D Chawli told Northeast Now.
“We did not receive any communication or warning from any individual or group of individuals prior to the incident,” he added.
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It may be mentioned here that the incident occurred in Namchik near Namphai Reserve Forest under Digboi Division.
The said belt is surrounded by thick vegetation cover on all sides and is a safe hideout for the militants of the states sharing boundary with Myanmer at its southernmost point in Nampong in Changlang district.
Earlier counter insurgency operations were also conducted by joint security forces and temporary camps were destroyed. The place of occurrence of the violence also shares a close proximity with the massive coal extraction site located at a distance of just around 5 kilometer. The incident perpetrated by the unidentified group resembles the Tikok mining colliery violence last month wherein several vehicles of the mining company were torched by suspected NSCN militants.
A team of Jagun police left to the spot.