A four-member Trinamool Congress team led by Derek O’Brien, MP, on Sunday met the families of five people killed by unidentified gunmen at Bisonimukh-Kherbari, about 45 km from Tinsukia town, and assured them of the support of “nine crore people of West Bengal”.
The team included Mamata Thakur and Nadimul Haq, MPs, and Mohua Moitra, West Bengal MLA.
The team went straight to the village after landing at the Dibrugarh airport. The BJP-led Assam government did not restrict them unlike in August when a team of Trinamool lawmakers was detained at the Silchar airport to prevent them from assessing the situation arising out of the publication of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens.
“We met the members of the family, gave them our moral support to make them feel safe,” Mr. O’Brien told pressspersons, adding that the party has plans to take the affected families to President Ram Nath Kovind.
‘Never had any issues’
“The people in the village cannot find any reason why they have been targeted. They said they have been living there for ages and never had any issues with anyone. We told them that our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is with them, and the nine crore people of West Bengal are with them,” Ms. Moitra said.
Various NGOs had asked the Assam government to prevent the Trinamool team from meeting the villagers fearing escalation of tensions between the Assamese and Bengali people. These two communities have had a history of conflict beginning with the language movement of the 1960s.
“The visit was incident-free. The team was escorted from and to the airport,” said Prasanta Sagar Changmai, SP, Sadiya.
