Minorities need solace, President on Assam violence

New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) President Pranab Mukherkee Tuesday said he was "pained" after witnessing the violence in Assam and added that minorities needed solace, understanding and protection from aggression.

"It is particularly painful for me to witness the violence in Assam. Our minorities need solace, understanding an protection from aggression," he said in his Independence Day-eve speech.

"Violence is not an option; violence is an invitation to greater violence. Concrete attempts have been made to heal the wounds of Assam, including the Assam accord conceived by our young and beloved prime minister Rajiv Gandhi," he said.

"We should revisit them, and adapt them to present conditions in the spirit of justice and national interest," he added.

"We need peace for a new economic surge that eliminates the competitive causes of violence," he added.

Last month's outbreak of violence between indigenous Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam led to the death of 73 people in the northeastern state.

The ethnic violence rendered hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

According to officials, 400,000 people have been displaced from almost 400 villages, who are now taking shelter in relief camps set-up by the state government.