By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Guwahati: With the innocent lives being killed at the gun point by some brainless activity of armed militants loyal to the Songbijit faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in Assam, people from across the country have condemned it. If the state government has failed to protect the lives of common people in Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD), on the other hand the locals alleged of police and administration atrocity on the villagers.
Killing people in BTAD is not a new story, for the past one decade or so innocent people are victimized specially non-Bodo people by Bodo militants. Adivasi, Bengali and Muslims have been killed in large numbers.
Of late Muslims have been the soft target by these militants which the police say belong to the NDFB (Songbijit). Similarly, four petty traders were brutally killed after they were kidnapped by militants in Baksa district.
The locals allege that the police and administration tortured them when they protested seeking justice.
Shajahan Ali Ahmed, a local youth and activist, said that he narrowly escaped when police opened fired. “Police were not that cooperative with us and were making some irreverent statements which angered the people. One senior police official said that these people were killed by their own people,” said Shajahan who is also the district president of All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU).
The enraged people then reacted and pelted stones at the police forcing the police to lathi charge and fire. “I too narrowly escaped from being hit by a bullet as I lied down to the ground,” he added.
At this atrocity of the militant and administration the locals have appealed to various organization including Amnesty International India, Human Rights Observers, Human Rights Watch, Asian Human Rights Commission among others to intervene in to safeguard the basic rights of people.
Meanwhile, activists from the country have condemned the incident and appealed the state government to do the needful.
“The government has to make the militants surrender their arms at the earliest. As long as the arms are there innocent people will be killed. Though people from other community too have been killed, the Muslims have become to be soft target,” said Irfan Engineer of Institute for Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.
He also slammed the government for failing to control the Bodo militants and then trying to cover up the issue by means of atrocity on the poor people.
According to media reports nearly 1000 persons were killed in last five years in BTAD and over 1300 cases of abduction took place. Although over 500 cases under Arms Act were registered with different police stations in 2009, the rate of conviction and the number of those charge-sheeted in connection with such serious offences depicts a poor investigation record of Assam Police in BTAD as well.
Reports also say that Assam Police has recovered over 700 arms in the span of last five years.
LS Hardenia, activist and the chief convener of All India Secular Forum termed the episode as highly condemnable. “Time and again such incidents have revealed that how terribly the state government has failed to control the state affairs. The culprits should be punished and appropriate action should be taken at the highest level,” Hardenia said.
Noted writer and activist Ram Puniyani too have condemned the incident and said that the insecurity among the minorities in Assam has been increasing.
“Congress government has totally failed to better the situation over the years. As a result with the killings, the insecurity among the minority is increasing,” Puniyani said.
People in Assam too have frustrated at the law and order affairs in the state. Writer and educationist who have travelled across the state Dinesh Baishya termed it as political killings. “BTAD has become a killing field. Common people are being killed but the political leaders are busy with their power grabbing game,” Baishya said.
Meanwhile, In connection with the killings of the four people at Labdanguri under Gobardhana PS of Baska district, two persons were arrested — Soni Narzary and Danda Narzary of Labdanguri.
Police said interrogation of the arrested persons and other six persons revealed four names of the accused involved in the incident. It is learnt that the accused are Lengra alias Sahash, Biliphang, Gobla Basumatary and Soniram Daimari alias Saiklung. The above accused persons are member of NDFB(S) group.
In vulnerable locations, 23 temporary police pickets have already been established to instil confidence in Baska district. Assam government is processing construction of 28 barracks for troubled districts as well.
Some more vulnerable pockets have been identified and another 10 security posts will be functional within 15 days.