The overnight rain may have washed away the blood from the streets of the Balajan Tinali market in Assam's Kokrajhar district where 14 civilians and one extremist were killed on Friday, but a day later the situation reflected terror and panic.
Smoke still coiled out of a few of the dozen shops gutted in the attack, and bullet marks are visible on their walls and tin roofs. Vegetables and other goods lay scattered on the ground as security forces stood guard. Of the 200 shops which had escaped damage, not a single one had dared open its shutters. Shopkeepers and locals stood in small groups in the market as politicians and members of security agencies poured into the market.
The multi-lingual hoardings presented a picture of peace and unity, in contrast to the ethnic strife Kokrajhar has been witnessing over the past few years, especially between Muslim and Bodos in 2012 and Adivasis and Bodos in 2014.
Aakash Mondal and Subungsha Basumatari were taking out charred furniture from their ruined shops.
Villagers brave rain to attend funerals
A few hundred metres away from the Balajan Tinali market in Kokrajhar district of Assam where 14 civilians and an extremist were killed on Friday, preparations for the final rites of three of the victims were on. Villagers came out in large number, ignoring the rain, and took turns to complete the final rites.
On the banks of a rivulet, graves were being dug for two victims belonging to the Nath community, while the pyre was lit for Tapan Chakrabarty, a Bengali Hindu.
“They killed my mother. What was her fault?” asked Ajay Nath, son of the elderly Posi Nath who sold betel nut in the market.
The attack, which was allegedly carried out by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit), also claimed the lives of six Bodos. Nebarun Moshary was in his barber stall when the terrorists struck. Four persons in his shop fell to the bullets.
Head of a five-member family, Nebarun was the breadwinner. While his two daughters, Demolia and Jhulia, were in a state of shock, the other elderly women in the family spoke.
“The death has been painful for us, but what is more painful is that members of our community are responsible for this,” one of them said.
Around 15 km away, another household was grieving for its loss — the house of Manjay Islari, the alleged terrorist killed in the gunfight.
His mother Guschan told journalists that he left home about 10 years ago and never came back. The fourth of the seven children, Manjay had passed Class X and wanted to join the Indian Army.
Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma described Manjay Islari as the self-styled area commander of 16th battalion of the NDFB(S).
A little past afternoon the frail mother was summoned by the district authorities for handing over the body.
