By Mahtab Alam, for TwoCircles.net
Assam Violence 2012: Stories from the ground: Part 2
The Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport of Guwahati (Assam) bore an eerie silence, compared to the airport of the National Capital that the team had left just hours ago. The team, comprising of activists, journalists and members of civil society organizations from different parts of the country, was on a fact finding mission to assess the ground realities of the violence affected areas of Assam, in order to make positive interventions.
We reached Guwahati on 7th August, around 8:20 am, after nearly three weeks of the recent round of violence that hit parts of Assam, and which almost rocked the Bodo Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD), often referred to as ‘Bodoland’. In Guwahati, we were joined by a number of local activists, advocates, academicians, including a former Vice Chancellor of Guwahati University, and many senior members of civil society organizations of Assam.
According to reports, as of 8th August, 77 people had died and over 400,000 people from almost 400 villages of BTAD had been displaced. They are taking shelter in 270 relief camps, mainly housed in educational institutions of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Bongaigaon and Dhubri. Many people have been reported to be missing as well. As the situation was still volatile, we planned to set out directly for the affected area. Our first aim was to reach Kokrajhar as soon as possible, the worst hit area of the violence, and nearly 215 Kilometers from the state capital, on the road via National Highway- 31. However, we had to wait for nearly an hour as the Police party, which was supposed to escort us and without which it was not advisable to travel for security reasons, arrived late. Meanwhile, utilizing this time, we had a brief discussion (with the local group) on the current situation and how we were going to go about it.
Kokrajhar is one of the twenty seven districts of Assam with 2.85% share of the state population. The Kokrajhar town is the headquarters of BTAD Council, created on 10th February 2003 and comprising of four districts, viz. Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baska and Udalguri and three sub divisions namely Kokrajhar, Gossaigaon and Parbatjhora. Culturally, the region happens to be a mix of Bodos, Bengalis, Assamese, Adivasis, and Muslims. This is not the first time that the region has witnessed violence. In the recent past, there was violence in 1993-94 (between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims), in 1995 (between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Hindus), in 1996 (between Bodos and Santhals) and again in 2008 (between Bodo and Bengali-speaking Muslims). In 1996 alone, more than 2 lakh people were displaced and 200 people were killed.
Out on NH-31, which is otherwise a busy highway, we witnessed very low vehicular movement, much of it carrying relief material or on emergency duty. The coal tarred roads were bordered on both sides with lush green fields and forests. And on a regular interval, one could sight offices of the forest department of the state. Our convoy would undergo a change of guard with the change taking place at the district border, and with every change, we had to wait till the next troop of guards arrived to escort us. On sides of the highway, Army men as well as other para-military forces, dressed in their uniforms and armed with their guns, were a sight throughout our journey.
Till noon, our journey was smooth, barring the change of guards. At 12: 10 in the afternoon, our journey was disrupted for some time at Chokor Mor, near Bongaigaon-Dhubri Border. Traffic was blocked by locals, in protest of the killings that had taken place the previous night in Ranikhuli area, which falls in Kokrajhar-Dhubri district. Later, we were told that three persons from the Muslim community were killed, during taravih (special night prayers in the month of Ramzan) on 6th August. According to locals, they had feared some attack, so they had deployed six of them outside the mosque as guards. Meanwhile, some armed men in military uniform (green olive color) turned up. The Muslims thought that they belonged to the army and so didn’t get alarmed, but as soon as they came near they started firing on the Muslims, killing three on the spot while two were seriously wounded who were admitted to the hospital.
Due to the blockade of the highway, the escort team expressed its inability to take us forward, and they left the team at the Inspection Bungalow (Government Guest House) of Chapar town, Dhubri District, promising us of another unit in a few hours. After a short break, there was a deliberation within the team of whether it was safe and advisable to go ahead without any escort. With safety in mind, the team decided to visit the relief camps in the vicinity instead of making an immediate trip to Kokrajhar, which was postponed till the guards arrived. The worst, however, was yet to come. A few of the team members expressed their inability to join us in this visit of relief camps, fearing some untoward incident due to their presence. This was a big setback to the team but the trip had to go on. In the days to come, similar apprehensions were expressed by other team members. These incidents are self explanatory of the degree of fear that was prevalent in the minds of the people. The biggest casualty of the violence was the disruption of trust between the two communities, which had always been hanging on a thin string, and the civil society was no exception to this.
We managed to visit two camps that were close by, before the arrival of the escort units. At these camps, most of the inmates were from the districts of Kokrajhar and Chirang. We noticed that the camps were self managed, with not much support from the government’s side. The best part of these two camps was that though they were both Muslim camps, they were managed by members belonging to two communities that have traditionally been considered to be at loggerheads with one another. This gave a boost to our hopes, of normalcy being restored in the days to come.
Finally, we were again on the road to Kokrajhar, optimistic about reaching soon. With the hoots of sirens on our escort vehicles, we made our entry into the town of Kokrajhar around 6 pm in the evening. Since we were approaching the appointment time fixed with the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Kokrajhar, Jayanta Narlikar, we made our way to his office instead of visiting some of the other camps. At his office, like any other Indian office, we had to wait despite our appointment. The DC arrived according to the ‘Indian Standard Time’, at 7:30 PM, an hour late to the fixed time, giving some or the other reason. Meanwhile, we had a discussion with the ADC on the current situation. The ADC shared some basic information; however, he was unable to give any specific detail. The DC, upon his arrival, instead of engaging positively with us and replying to our queries, started giving gyan on the 6th schedule area. He seemed least bothered in engaging with civil society and kept indulging in self appreciation. All that he had to say was that law and order and health, hygiene was the two priorities that he was interested in maintaining. He even handed us a bundle of papers carrying ‘water purification report’ of the camp. However, what we witnessed in the camps was very different. The toilets were dirty, there was water logging outside tube wells and people were suffering from communicable diseases like Malaria. He also made claims of things getting back to normal and of getting everything right in a week or two. When asked about his plans for rehabilitation, he had nothing to tell us expect that, ‘A survey is going on’. Upon our specific suggestions regarding relief, rehabilitation, return, law & order and above all, of ensuring justice to the victims, his response was, ‘I am the man in the field and I know the best—what to do and what not to’!
This is how we were welcomed in Kokrajhar, that too by no other than the DC!