By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Guwahati: On Tuesday yet another body of an unidentified woman was found floating in Beki river leading the death toll to 36 in the recent anti-Muslim violence in Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) in Assam. The villagers are worried as 15 more people are missing since the miscreants had launched the attack of killing the innocent people.
Efforts are being made to trace out these missing persons with the help of Central Armed Police Forces and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF). National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is also being deployed to augment the search and rescue efforts of the State Government.
On Tuesday, All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMU) demanded that the current Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) under the leadership of Hagrama Mohilary should be dissolved immediately. The students’ body also staged protest in front of Raj Bhawan seeking the intervention of Assam governor JB Patnaik to bring a solution against the violence in BTAD. AAMSU also advocated that the Army should be handed over the law and order responsibility in the area.
“We appeal the governor to exercise his good office for taking steps in the interests of all the communities living in the BTAD. The present council headed by Hagrama Mohilary should be dissolved immediately. Stern action should be taken against those who have fuelled for occurrence of such brutal violence. We also demand that Mohilary and Pramila Rani Brahma should be arrested,” AAMSU president Abdur Rahim Ahmed said.
Another important aspect of their demand is that the students’ body wanted a review of the Bodo accord 2003 to consider the interest of all communities living in the BTAD.
“Besides, we also want an impartial CBI inquiry into the incident even though the state government has declared an NIA investigation. Immediate steps should be taken by the state government to send back the displaced people to their home and before that proper facilities should be made available to the inmates,” Ahmed said.
However, state government said that the firm action taken subsequent to the terrorist attacks in BTAD areas bore good results in containing the aftermath of the incidents. There has been a considerable improvement in the law and order situation of the two trouble torn districts of Baksa & Kokrajhar. The curfew was relaxed in all the 3 districts- Kokrajhar, Chirang & Baksa for the second consecutive day and no violent incident was reported during the period of relaxation. There were also no reports of involuntary migration or relocation of people from the affected districts.
Army which was requisitioned by the district administration in the affected districts to help in maintenance of law & order has been derequisitioned to carry out Counter Insurgency Operations and recovery of illegal weapons. However, Army would continue to be in standby mode for quick redeployment.
Also today, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) president Badruddin Ajmal met the Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and requested him to make arrangements for security as his party believes that there may be more violence on or after May 16th, the date when results of Lok Sabha election to be announced.
Group of Ministers already constituted in 2012 is overseeing relief and rehabilitation efforts. The Group of Minister in its meeting held on May 5, 2014 has recommended to provide rehabilitation grant to the affected families as per following scale:
For the families whose houses have been fully burnt/damaged-Cash assistance of Rs.22,000/- per family, Clothing Grant of Rs.2,000/- per family and Utensils of Rs.2,000/- per family, 03 bundles of GCI Sheets per family.
For the families whose houses have been partially damaged-Cash assistance of Rs.22,000/- per family.
Meanwhile, district administrations in several districts- Nagaon, Karimganj, Jorhat … etc. were able to restore law and order after a spate of Bandhs and “rasta roko” agitations were resorted to by people protesting against the terror attacks. Timely and firm action has helped restore law & order and restore movements over National and State Highways. However, a close vigil is being maintained.
N.R. Wasan, IPS, ADG, NIA visited Guwahati and met Jitesh Khosla, Chief Secretary, Assam to discuss the modalities for taking over the investigation of selected cases of recent violence in BTAD.