Muslims under siege in Assam: Part I
By Diganta Sharma for TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati: Shoot at sight orders were issued on October 4 in Assam’s curfew bound district of Udalguri, where seven people were killed and more than 50 injured in clashes between two communities.
This is not a new development. In fact Udalguri and some other districts in Assam have witnessed clashes for the last two months. In August, the Udalguri district saw similar clashes between two communities in which about 10 people were killed.
Assam of late has turned into the hotbed of violence and communal fanaticism. The malicious campaign for expulsion of ‘Bangladeshis’ has devastated the long history of unity in diversity and created a deep social division.
At places the campaign has turned into communal conflicts, for which the democratic organisation and their enterprises are responsible. At this very time of reportage, certain places in Darrang Sotintpur and Udalguri districts are under the shadow of violence and citizens are scared of undesirable activities that might culminate into communal conflict.
For fear most of the people in affected areas have left home and are taking shelter in relief camps, where they are served scanty food to satisfy the hunger.
Many students have not seen the school for a long period of time.
At least 15 people from the Muslim community have reportedly disappeared and are still missing. In the meantime more than 20 people have been abducted, four of them escaped from the hand of the fanatics. While some others have been freed four dead bodies have also been recovered. The local people have shivered with fear as they haven’t seen such horrific scenes. It was clear from the condition of the bodies that they were exposed to heinous brutality by the abductors.
The story of pain the freed few have narrated is nothing but the cruelty on the part of the abductors. Moreover, the victims of Bhairab Kund area, Lamabari (near Mazbat police station) Sapkhaiti village, Bhalukmari area, Sapprabari village, all have related their pains which reveal the real nature of the communal conflict. The people present on the spot have also given their statements which are not only fearful but also terrific as a whole.
On August 14, MUSA (a muslim student union working on Assam) gave a call for ‘Assam Bandh’ to demand early action to put an end to the atrocity against the Indian Muslims in the garb of the expulsion of the illegal Bangladeshis. It should be noted that until August 13, All Assam Student Union (AASU), Assam Jatiatagadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), and many other such organisations had arrested a number of people from various places in the state in the name of Bangladeshi immigrants.
AUDF President and MLA Badruddin Ajmal meeting victims of recent violence
In fact they are Indian Muslims enjoying democratic rights granted by the Indian Constitution. To foil the Assam Bandh agenda of MUSA, six organizations called a common meeting at Orang. ASSU, AJYCP and some other organisations opposed the bandh call by MUSA. This opposition of such democratic organisation has created mixed feeling among certain sections of the society. In the consequent clash four people had been seriously injured by the supporters of MUSA at Bhalukmari on 14th August.
The very news of Oli Daimary, Binoy Boro, Nirmal Deka and Tarun Deka being attacked by the Muslim supporters has added oil to already burning fire in entire Rowta area.
A certain section of the Bodo youth started attacking the people from the labour classes at Udalguri-Rowta Highway in retaliation to the fact that four people of their community were inflicted at Bhalukmari.
They abducted 14 Muslim labourers from a truck coming from Udalguri. A little later of this incident Dipak Rabha, a shopkeeper, became a victim of this conflict when he was going to open his shop for the day. This created a situation beyond control of authority on August 15, the day of Independence of India, when members of the Muslim minority were attacked at various places. The neighbouring villages of Bhairabkunda have been plundered by batches of Bodo tribal youths. Some of them entered the house of Rabi Hussain in Sapkhaiti village and all the clothes of the house were taken out and Rabi was forced to set them on fire.
This reporter got the chance to talk to Rabi Hussain (25) on August 24 at the relief camp of the madrasa at Aminpara near Rowta. Rabi said, “Some acquainted Bodo youths came to my house and called me. When I came out they called me ‘Miah, why are you wearing long pant instead of lungi (a traditional dress of the Muslim)? Go and bring out all the clothes of your house. You are Bangladeshi and as such it is not the right place for you.’
Rabi Hussain
By the time they started beating Rabi and the piles of clothes were set afire. Rabi have two sisters. Watching the scene they started running. The youths left Rabi and started searching for the girls. Rabi somehow escaped and came to Udalguri town. His sisters took shelter in a nearby tea garden and came to Jargaon the next day. They could meet Rabi at the relief camp.
At the camp there was Dulal Ali, another victim of the conflict. He was inflicted by a group of Bodo youths at Lamabari near Mazbat town on August 16. Due to infliction the bone of his left hand got fractured. He was taking local medication. Dulal did not have enough money to take modern medicine and treatment.
Dulal Ali
On August 16 an old man was tortured on National Highway No. 52. On that day the rumour spread that the Muslim minority had inflicted Bodo people at Dalgoan town. As a result, a bus coming on that highway was stopped near Gelabil and the old man was compelled to get down and then he was beaten. The victim, Banes Ali, a resident of Barsola (Sonitpur), was later hospitalized but he succumbed to injuries later.
Now the question arises why an old man like Banes Ali was forced to get down of the bus and brutally beaten.
Some people of the locality told this reporter: “It was a revenge played upon an old man. He was wearing ‘Lungi’ and thus he became victim at the age of 60. But he did not know his fault that attracted such torture.”
That inhumanity did not stop over there. On August 16 Dipak Rabha’s body was cremated at Bhalukmari. A crowd was present there. During the visit of this reporter, the local people said that a certain section of Udalguri planned an attack that very night. Consequently the next day a group of people comprising Bodo, Nepali and Adivasi people attacked number 2 Saprabari (a village between Udalguri and Sonitpur district). Hundreds of fanatics with guns, bows and arrows and spears attacked the people. When this reporter visited the village, fear was looming large in the faces of the local people.
In this attack lethal weapons like guns were used. Now the question arises – how did these youths get hold of such weapons? Now it is clear that an innocent section of the Muslim minority was mostly affected. In fact it was an ‘answer’ to the ‘call’ to expel the Bangladeshi or illegal immigrants from the soil of Assam.
In Bhalukmari the conflict started in the presence of police officials. They remained mute spectators. Isn’t it a threat to humanity in 21st Century when people die or forced to die just because they have affiliation to a particular religion?
Aminpara refugee camp
On August 24 this reporter went to the relief camp in Aminpara. There are several children in the camp. They have come from 35 villages. They are still scared of returning to their own houses. When asked an old lady said, “The Bodo people will torture us again if we return.” A youth asked this reporter: “Will there be any environment of work for us or has it been finished over there?” The recovered seven bodies became the very source of fear for those minority people. They were all labourers. They were abducted and later killed. Tongue, nose and ear were cut off.
Such incidents, in fact, pose threat to human rights. They have raised some questions: if the authority is going to compensate the victims. Will the miscreants get due punishment in time? Who will take the responsibility to instill feeling of brotherhood among the people?
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This is first part of the TwoCircles.net special series on Assam anti-Muslim violence. http://www.twocircles.net/special_reports/muslims_under_siege_assam.html