Longsowal is on NH 37, just 20 km from Tinsukia town and six km short of Doomdooma. There are two police stations on the highway on either side, roughly four to five km apart.

Army convoys move out almost everyday from the 2 Div Hqs at Dinjan to various places, including Arunachal Pradesh.

“If we are unsafe, imagine what would be the state of our people who live in remote chapories (winter river islands) on the Brahmaputra,” says Radheyshyam Prasad, another shopkeeper, who claims that the Longsowal cluster of Biharis go back to three generations. “We may be of Bihari origin, but we belong to this place. Our ancestors came during the days of the British,” said Jainarain, a shopkeeper. Rekha Kumari (8), daughter of Parsuram Prasad, who was shot in both legs and is now at the AMC Hospital in Dibrugarh, said the militants entered their house by breaking the bamboo door. “They barged in with guns and opened fire. I got shot on both legs and the abdomen,” she said.

Other Bihari clusters, like Ghoramara Chapori, are also soft targets. “It is far away, about 20 km from the nearest police station. You cannot reach that place without crossing several channels of the Brahmaputra,” says Tinsukia SP Prasanta Bhuyan.

As many as 13 persons, all from Bihar and engaged in cattle rearing in the river islands, were lined up by a group of militants clad in army fatigues and shot on Friday night. While the killing took place at around 9.30 pm on Friday, the police got the news only next morning.

... contd.