Clashes continued unabated in Assam and the toll shot up to 40 on Wednesday with the recovery of eight more bodies even as the Centre asked the Assam government to nab the “ring leaders” involved in unrest.
Five more bodies were recovered from Bijni in Chirang district and three from the worst-hit Kokrajhar where shoot-at-sight orders and indefinite curfew were in force, police said.
Two fresh incidents of arson have been reported from Chirang and Kokrajhar districts, but no casualty have been reported. Thirteen columns of the Army were deployed in Kokrajhar, Chirang, Dhubri and Bongaigaon where they staged flag marches accompanied by a magistrate.
Defence spokesman Colonel S. Phogat said the Army units had identified a number of sensitive and hyper-sensitive areas in the four districts to enable them to better patrol them.
In Delhi, Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh said 2,000 central security personnel have been deputed to guard Guwahati-bound trains and railway tracks which were disrupted.
“We ve asked the state government to book ring leaders of both sides so that violence can be checked immediately. No one involved in the violence will be spared,” he said.
Ruling out the possibility of involvement of anyone from across the border, he said, “The international border is sealed. It is simply impossible for any organised group crossing over to India from across the border to carry out the attacks.”
Nearly two lakh people were rendered homeless in the violence and about 125 relief camps set up.
In Guwahati, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi held a meeting of government officials, including the chief secretary, to monitor the situation.
“25 people have so far been killed in Kokrajhar district while 15 others have lost their lives in neighbouring Chirang district,” Assam IGP (law and order) L.R. Bishnoi told PTI.
Indefinite curfew is continuing in Kokrajhar while night curfew is on in Chirang and Dhubri districts.
Bishnoi said, “The situation is stablising.”
North Frontier Railway spokesman Nripendra Bhattacharjee said passenger and goods trains services had partially resumed this afternoon and the stalled trains would resume their journey with the ‘improvement’ in the situation.
More than 30,000 passengers, who are still stranded in New Bongaigaon, Kamakhyaguri and New Jalpaiguri stations of the NFR section, complained of food and water crisis.
“With the resumption of train services, we hope that the stranded passengers will be taken to their destinations gradually,” the NFR spokesman said.
Joint secretary, MHA in-charge of northeast, Sambhu Singh and Ajay Chaddha (special secretary, internal security) toured the affected areas in Kokrajhar to take stock of the situation.
very sad to have a situation like this often. This is not really an
ethnic clash of Indian citizens but between migrants and our
own brothers, Bodos. It is an opportunity for government to take up
refugees issues; better to repatriate the migrants to their
homeland. We really really don't need them. I'm not asking for any
brutality but by peaceful means.
Why not you write the truth. The violence is perpetrated by the
Bangladeshi illegal infiltrators against the original Hindu population.
The main stream media is always against truth and can be threatened
easily to fall in line.
Deployment of army is only on paper, my native village is Lalkura
which is surrounded by riot prone area, our village is still untouched
as majority of the peoples are bengali hindu, Rajbangshi, Adivasi and
small number of muslims. No army deployed in villages, in the darkness
of night the rioters rule that villages. This is a big political game
but price that has already been paid by innocent people. Influx of
immigrants from bangladesh is the main source of all problems.
Politicians compromise the situation keeping their eye in the number
of votes. After all this is India, any thing is possible for the
Chair.
This violence is the unfortunate result of vote bank politics played by the Congress who refused to take action to curb illegal immigrants who are indulging in large scale violence. The demographics in the NE region has changed dramatically on account of the flood of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. In W. Bengal also faces a similar situation particularly in the areas bodering Bangaldesh thanks to the vote bank politics played by the Left Front when they were in power.
Who are these 'minority immigrants'? Why are you so shy to call them
Bangladeshi infiltrators? The report mentions the number of deaths. Why
not number of people who have become refugees in their own country,
somewhat like the Kashmiri Pandits?
Is India is a secular country or just by calling it makes it. Soon some people will start asking question on our freedom? This country is in sleep or denial , things happened 20 year ago in Kashmir are back again to repeat itself in Assam and India govt. denies all factors creating it like illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Now we have a situation where more than 1.5 lakhs people are homeless. Who is responsible for this situation, none other than our own govt. Because they were in denial and they are still in.
This being described as a ethenic violence in which people have lost lives...the Chief Minister like Modi is not a secular person and has allowed the Muslims to be killed.
My request to all people who are living in assam that pls. stop hating people om the basis of caste, colour n creed. Do involve in some productive work and make our assam a developed state .
the government in assam must provide basic necessary amenities to the people.must pay attention to people's needs.but every govt. in india is interested in looting people's money.caste animosities ethnic hatred and fights are the offsprings of very bad economic mismanagement and failure on the part of the political mafia in the guise of leaders to realise that they belong to the great species of HOMOSAPIENS.
The people are paying the price for Indira Gandhi’s electoral fraud.
The Bangladesh refugees were asked to stay in Assam post 1971 war,
given ration cards etc. and made citizens of this country. Being
Muslims coming from a poor state, they found a heaven and started
voting for congress. These people started sharing the limited
resource available to all of Assam. Trouble surfaced from here. The
Congress government kept quiet, managing the ethnic violence which
erupted often. Many governments have come and gone with a promise to
solve the foreigners’ issue, nothing has happened till now. Congress
has never hesitated to compromise on nation’s sovereignty for selfish
reasons. Be it Assam, or in JK- it always played the vote bank card
for each and every problem. Unless the people of this country
decisively throw congress out in the coming elections, a permanent
solution is not in the sight!
Government should take stringent action to prevent such clashes.
I would differ on the use of the term ethnic violence here. In fact, this is an attack on Indians by Bangladeshis.
Its an open secret that these illegal migrants have been the voter bank for Congress party in Assam, and they continue to. By creating such violence, these illegal migrants are trying to flush out the Bodo ppl from their own land and rendering them homeless. They are on their way to capture Kokrajhar after occupying the district of Dhubri, almost fully.
what i would like to request you scribes is that please get into the depth of the incident and highlight the matter in national level. Don not know about the politicians, but if we citizens do not take prompt actions, very soon we shall be loosing the NE to Bangladesh.
The violence is between illegal aliens and native citizens, period. Why
bring a communal color to a clear and present danger by saying "between
immigrant minorities and bodo tribals"? State the facts honestly and
that is the biggest service that can be done to the nation.
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