Guwahati, May 08 2009: Some 13 houses belonging to Dimasa people were burnt down in the trouble torn North Cachar Hills district of Assam on Friday by the suspected Zeliangrong youths in a Dimasa village of NC Hills district in Assam.

However, no human casualities were reported in today's incident.

With the Friday incident, the NH Hills district continues to experience high tension.

On Thursday Dima Haolam Daogah (Black Widow faction) triggered the derailment of a goods train by removing fish plates.

The incident left three security personnel, escorting the train along with others, injured.

According to official sources, unidentified gunmen swooped down on Jorai village, about nine kms from district headquarters Haflong, early Friday morning and opened indiscriminate fire.

Later, when the villagers fled their homes amidst the firing, the gunmen set the village on fire.

Thirteen of the total 15 houses in the village were gutted in the incident.

A villager sustained gunshot wounds and was rushed to hospital at Haflong.

On hearing the incident, police and security personnel rushed to the spot but by then the gunmen had fled.

The personnel launched a massive combing operation but the hostile terrains and poor road communication said to have made their task doubly difficult.

The villagers told police that most of the gunmen were garbed in army fatigues and black dresses.

It was not immediately known which group was involved in the incident.

This was the second incident of arson in the district within a fortnight.

In the last week of April, cadres of a militant outfit had burnt down 40 houses in a Dimasa village in the district.

The outfit resorted to this action suspecting the Dimasa villagers to have provided shelter to the cadres of a breakaway faction of Black Widow.

But later, on realizing its mistake the group sought forgiveness from the villagers.

Meanwhile, Director General of Assam Police, GM Srivastava, said that additional forces had been rushed to the restive district with a senior officer of STF overseeing the situation.

"The war (against the militants) is on and it'll take sometime before we can go all-out against them," the DGP added.

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