According to DG-Assam, the number of dead bodies in Baksa and Kokrajhar recovered is at 32. However, unofficial sources say the number of dead could go upto 50
* Assam government seeks NIA probe into the recent violence.
* Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed “shock and grief” and said “such attacks are cowardly attempts to spread fear and terror among our citizens.”
* Assam Minister of State for Border Areas Development Ahmed Siddique blamed the Bodoland People’s Front for recent spate of killings in Assam. He termed the killings as election related violence.
* Congress leader Kapil Sibal, today, accused the BJP leaders of inciting violence in Assam, “BJP leaders are fanning violence in Assam.”
He also added, “BJP leaders and supporters using morphed pictures to spread communal propaganda on social media.”
The PM’s Office put out a statement, today, urging the people in Assam to remain calm. It assured them that Central Govt and state govt will be taking all measures to maintain law and order
* However, BJP leaders have hit out at prime minister Manmohan Singh for inaction in the Assam violence. “‘Why is PM silent on Assam attack? Why no action on atrocities against minorities in Assam?,” questioned BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain
* Nine more bodies have been found in the Baksa district of Assam, after the last count of 22 given by the officials on Friday night.
The police have arrested 12 people in Baksa and another 8 have been taken in for questioning in Kokrajhar.
A curfew has been clamped in Assam’s Baksa and Kokrajhar districts after the death toll in the targeted killings by suspected Bodo militants has risen to 32. The army has carried out flag marches, and shoot-on-sight orders have been issued in both the districts.
* Biswajit Daimary, Bodoland People’s Front, said, “Hope situation in Kokrajhar will be controlled,these anti-social culprits must be punished.”
* Congress President Sonia Gandhi today decried the role of sectarian and militant groups, expressing deep anguish and sorrow over the tragedy. Gandhi said, “the inherent plurality of India will never let divisive and violent forces succeed.” She also said Congress party and the entire country stand with the family of those killed in the attack. Read more
* Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is keeping a close watch on the Assam situation in the wake of violence in two communally-sensitive districts of the state that has claimed at least 32 lives.
Late on Friday evening, 12 bodies were recovered in the villages of Narayanguri and Khagrabari adjoining each other on the fringes of Manas National Park in Baksa. A group of militants reportedly belonging to the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit faction) stormed the Naraynguri area, and fired indiscriminately, killing at least nine people on the spot.
According to reports, seven women and two men were among the dead. The rebels also set around 50 houses on fire in the area. After the attacks many of the villagers from the above-mentioned districts fled to nearby villages to be safe. Most of the people living in these areas are non-Bodo people.
Ethnic riots between tribal Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims in BTAD in 2012 had claimed over 100 lives. The opposition parties besides groups and organisations sniffed a political conspiracy in the attacks given the growing dissidence within the ruling Congress in the state. They demanded Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi resign immediately owning ‘moral responsibility’. The attacks prompted the authorities to rush additional forces to the restive areas and Gogoi to cancel his official visit to Germany.
Four-year-old Taslima Khatun, who was injured in an attack, is comforted by her grandfather inside a hospital in Guwahati, Assam. Image credit: Reuters
The army staged a flag march to instill confidence in the minds of people even as curfew was clamped in the sensitive and vulnerable areas. Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde called upGogoi and assured him of all help in controlling the situation.
Reports suggested that hundreds of families fled to neighbouring Dhubri district fearing fresh attacks. Bishnoi said the administration managed to convince people in at least five villages to not flee.
Besides Chirang and parts of Dhubri districts, indefinite curfew has also been imposed in Kokrajhar and Baksa districts where 23 people were killed. The violence started when heavily armed NDFB-S militants entered a house and shot dead three members of a family, including two women, and injured an infant of a minority community near Ananda Bazar area in Baksa district on Thursday.
The All Bodoland Minority Students’ Union (ABMSU) held Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), which runs the Bodoland Territorial Council, responsible for the bloodbath. “We suspect the hand of BPF because the attacks were perpetrated a day after BPF leader Pramila Rani Brahma’s assertion that the party candidate might lose as he didn’t get the votes of Muslims in the parliamentary election for the Kokrajhar seat,” said Lafikul Islam Ahmed, a leader of ABMSU. But the Bodoland People’s Progressive Front believed that the attacks were the result of a ‘political conspiracy’.
Non-Bodos constitute over 70% of the voters in the Kokrajhar seat. A conglomerate of 22 influential non-Bodo organisations had backed a former Ulfa leader, who contested as an independent. “It could be a conspiracy of the state government. It was perhaps done to divert the attention of people from the growing dissidence among Congress legislators. It happened in 2012 when Gogoi was faced with rebellion from within,” said BPPF leader Rabiram Narzary.
——-Courtesy: DNA