No relation with Naga or Hmar militants: HTF

SILCHAR, Oct 23: React­ing sharply to DIG (South­ern Range) Vinod Kumar’s state­ment, Lun­neh Kuki, the self-styled pub­lic­ity sec­re­tary of the Hill Tigers Force (HTF) clar­i­fied that they had no link with either the NSCN (IM) or HPC (D). In a release issued to The Sen­tinel, Lun­neh said there was no involve­ment of any third party in their actions. HTF, a mil­i­tant out­fit, com­pris­ing mem­bers from var­i­ous non-Dimasa eth­nic tribes claimed respon­si­bil­ity for the killing of for­mer DHD (J) mil­i­tant James Dimasa and burn­ing of a num­ber of Dimasa vil­lages. They had ear­lier claimed respon­si­bil­ity for the attack on a goods train in protest against the State Government’s move to ink peace pact with the DHD. Police had nabbed ten per­sons, all of them belonged to Kuki com­mu­nity and resid­ing in Dima Hasao.

Chief Min­is­ter Tarun Gogoi had in clear terms said that there was insti­ga­tion from the Naga mil­i­tant out­fits behind the car­nage. Debo­jit Thaosen, the Chief Exec­u­tive Mem­ber of the Dima Hasao Autonomous Dis­trict Coun­cil too had hinted that there was insti­ga­tion from the out­siders. How­ever, Lun­neh Kuki claimed that they had con­nec­tion with either the Naga or the Hmar mil­i­tant out­fits.

~The Sentinel