By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Diseases are spreading fast in riot relief camps in Assam, says Abu Bakar Sabbaq, who is attached with Association for Protection of Civil Rights. Sabbaq returned Delhi after visiting about 100 camps in Dhubri and Kokrajhar districts – the worst affected by the violence. Over four lakh people – 2.5 lakh of them are Muslims according to the state government figure – were rendered homeless in the Bodo-Muslim violence that erupted on 20th July 2012.
“Due to heat, unhygienic condition and overcrowding, diseases are spreading and it is feared epidemics can erupt that can claim lives of hundreds,” says Sabbaq who was part of the APCR team and some local human rights groups headed by its Delhi coordinator Syed Akhlaque Ahmed.
A girl child at a relief camp
“We have seen with our own eyes that a room with capacity of 10 persons has 80 persons,” says Sabbaq adding one can guess the result of this overcrowding. He informs most of the victims are from Kokrajhar district. He says that doctors are not visiting camps properly.
APCR along with local groups including Ajmal Foundation worked to help victims to lodge complaints with the police detailing what happened with them and their belongings and how they had to flee their village to save their life. Such complaints have been filed by about 12000 families.
A mother with her infant in lap and complaint sheet in hand waiting for the rights activists who will submit with the authorities on her behalf
Sabbaq refutes it is a Bodo-Muslim clash. Rather, he says, it is Bodo-nonBodo clash. In the past these Bodos have attacked, killed and pushed out adivasis also. “I saw non-Bodos helping Muslim victims in out of Bodo areas,” says Sabbaq who spent five days visiting camps in various districts.
APCR team at a camp
To check future attacks from Bodos, he suggests that Government should first seize all illegal weapons from the people in Bodo Territorial Council areas and village protection committees should be strengthened.