The Assam government on Monday transferred Sadiya Superintendent of Police Prasanta Sagar Changmai in an expected move after unidentified gunmen killed five Bengali people at Bisonimukh-Kherbari, about 45 km from Tinsukia, five days ago.
Mr. Changmai was made to swap charge with Debajit Deuri, the commandant of the 24th Assam Police Battalion in western Assam’s Baksa district.
The transfer order came after Mr. Changmai ordered a probe against the officer-in-charge of the Saikhowaghat police outpost who allegedly ignored a call for help from the villagers soon after the five were killed.
The outpost, set up around the time the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge – India’s longest at 9.15 km – was opened, is barely 500 metres from the village. The outpost adjoins a helipad constructed for the chopper that flew Prime Minister Narendra Modi in for the inauguration of the bridge in May 2017. “The villagers complained that those manning the Saikhowaghat outpost did not receive phone calls after the incident happened. They then called up the police station at Dhala (about 7 km away), whose personnel arrived some time later,” Mr. Changmai told The Hindu.
The Saikhowaghat outpost personnel also “inexplicably” failed to hear the gunfire. Some 30 empty cartridges had been recovered from near a culvert where the five were killed.
ULFA leaders’ visit
A team of pro-talks United Liberation Front of Asom leaders, headed by its general secretary Anup Chetia, would visit Bisonimukh-Kherbari village to meet the families of the victims. The ULFA leaders on ceasefire mode would be going as members of the Khilonjia Mancha, a forum of the indigenous. “We don’t want the blood of innocent people to be spilled over a political issue. We want to share the grief of the villagers,” Mr. Chetia said.
The anti-talks faction of ULFA (ULFA-Independent) headed by the fugitive Paresh Baruah, is believed to have struck at the minority Bengali village by taking advantage of the unrest in Assam over the Centre’s bid to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
Many in Assam fear that the Bill, if cleared by Parliament, would lead to the dumping of Bangladeshi Hindus on Assam. The bill proposes to give citizenship to non-Muslims who came from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan till December 2014 fleeing religious persecution.
