By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Guwahati based youth group, MY FACTS (Muslim Youths Forum Against Communalism, Terrorism and Sedition) today submitted a memorandum to the Chairperson of the National commission on minorities, Wajahat Habibullah on the massacre of the Muslim mine labourers in Meghalaya.
On Sunday night unidentified miscreants killed eight mine workers from Assam in the Garegittim and Nongalbibra areas in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills district, all of them Muslims of Bengali origin. After the massacre, mass exodus of panic-stricken workers back to Assam has begun. Over 5000 workers from Assam are reported to have left the areas of Garo Hills region in western Meghalaya fearing fresh attacks on non-indigenous workers.
MY FACTS member Advocate Aman Wadud with NCM Chairperson Wajahat Habibullah at alter’s office in the national capital.
Delhi based lawyer and MY FACTS member Aman Wadud and a Delhi University lecturer Shalim Hussain met NCM Chairperson at his office and handed over the memorandum. Advocate Wadud said, “Muslims of Garo Hills are already victims of systematic extortion by various militant outfits like ANVC, GNLA etc. and numerous so called NGOs. It is alleged that these militant outfits have support from ruling and opposition political leaders. As if it was not enough, now started a reign of terror in the Garo Hills. In the last three days 10 innocent Muslim labourers were brutally killed by Garo miscreants. Hundreds are still missing. This led to an exodus of thousands of Muslims creating a great human misery.”
Wadud alleged that the massacre of poor Muslim labourers come almost a year after the BTAD violence and added that he saw some kind of conspiracy against poor Muslims, who earn their living by working as wage labourers.
NCM Chairperson with the memorandum handed over by MY FACTS team.
Urging the NCM Chairperson for immediate intervention, My FACTS demanded:
1. Ensure safety and security of native Muslims of Garo Hills plain belt.
2. Ensure safe passage of Muslim labourers of Assam to their home.
3. We don’t have faith in local police and administration, which have record of being partisan and biased. We demand immediate deployment of Central Para – Military forces in Garo Hills.
4. We demand immediate relief and rehabilitation to the victims and their families.
5. We request your kind attention and intervention in order to stop killing of innocent Muslims in the name of ethnic riots.
Wajahat Habibullah has assured the MY FACTS team of all possible support and added that he will write to the Meghalaya CM seeking security and rehabilitation.
According to the police of Meghalaya, a group of around 50 men armed with weapons attacked three coal mines in the Garegittim-Dobakol region of Nangalbibra around 11.30 pm on Sunday with an intention to rob.
Meghalaya has a Muslim population of about 4%. They mostly reside in the plain belt of Garo Hills and on the Assam – Meghalaya border areas. The socio – economic condition of these indigenous Muslims is very pathetic. Due to discriminatory Reservation policy for Tribal’s (over 98%) Muslims do not have access to Government jobs, institutional loans or skill development. Most of them are engaged in cultivation, small trade and manual labour without any support from the Government. Again, thousands of Muslim labourers from Assam work in the Coal mines, quarries, construction industries, factories and other manual works. Most of these labourers are ‘Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) from river erosion prone areas of Goalpara and Dhubri District of Assam.
Meanwhile, Assam government has wrapped up the Meghalaya government over the killings of Assamese labourers. The Assam government has also announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs. 2 lakh to the keen of each of the victims. The Meghalaya government had also announced Rs 4 lakh as ex-gratia to families of each of the victims.
In May this year, suspected militant outfit in Garo Hills had killed five migrant labourers at Darangdura, 10 kms away from Nangalbibra in the district. A similar incident had also taken place in 2011, where five coal labourers were gunned down in the Goka coal dumping site in South Garo Hills.
Related:
Justice demanded for the rampant killings of Muslim workers in Meghalaya