Assam violence toll rises to 40, ethnic cleansing suspected

Guwahati, Oct 6 (PTI) Violence in Assam involving Bodo rebels and Bangladeshi migrants spread to a third district Chirang Monday claiming two more lives increasing the death toll to 40 even as the state government claimed it was a case of "ethnic cleansing" of non-tribals.

Miscreants killed two people, including a pregnant woman,
and injured two others in Chirang district, which led to
blockade of the National Highway 31(C) by Bodo protesters, the
police said. Violent clashes between the two communities first
broke out in Assam's Udalguri and Darrang districts rekindling
memories of the Nellie massacre nearly 25 years back.

The death toll since the violence began last Thursday now
stood at 40 with 15 people dying in police firing alone, Chief
Minister Tarun Gogoi told reporters here.

"Five hundred houses had been set ablaze so far and over
one lakh people had taken shelter in relief camps,"Gogoi said.

Four companies of Border Security Force (B.S.F.) were
deployed in violence-hit areas and two more companies were on
their way, he said.

He added that helicopters were patrolling from the air to
spot mobs in the troubled areas where shoot-at-sight orders
were in force.

No fresh incident was reported from worst-hit Udalguri
and Darrang districts where indefinite curfew had been clamped
with the army staging flag marches.

State government spokesman Himanta Biswa Sarma accused
the National Democratic Front of Bodoland(N.D.F.B.) of
indulging in ethnic-cleansing in the Bodoland Territorial
Administered Districts (B.T.A.D.) and threatened to "review" a
ceasefire agreement with it.

The violence in B.T.A.D. is a case of "ethnic cleansing
and not communal" as portrayed by the media, said Sarma, who
is the Health Minister, after visiting troubled Udalguri and
Darrang districts.

"The N.D.F.B. has launched a systematic and planned
campaign to drive out all non-Bodos from the B.T.A.D.
districts and is a deep-rooted conspiracy," said Sarma.

Asking the N.D.F.B. cadre to stay in their designated
camps, Sarma said "if the violence continues, we will be
forced to review the ceasefire agreement."

He said miscreants from different communities,
taking advantage of the situation, were resorting to loot
and arson.

The Chief Minister, who had Sunday claimed that a
section of N.D.F.B. cadre could be behind the violence, asked
the outfit, which is under a ceasefire agreement with the
Centre, to stay in their designated camps.

The army has deployed 10 companies in Udalguri and
Darrang districts to control the situation, Gogoi added.

An all-party delegation led by A.G.P. President Chandra
Mohan Patowary has also visited the affected areas.

Several state ministers are camping in the two
affected districts.

The clashes started last Thursday after a group of
people, belonging to a minority community, allegedly stole
cattle from Bodo-dominated Mohanpur village in Udalguri.

The violence later spread to Darrang district also
after which the district administration imposed an indefinite
curfew in the area.

Udalguri Deputy Commissioner George Basumatary was
transferred and Superintendent of Police Anup Kumar Singh
suspended for dereliction of duty and replaced by Kamal
Mahanta and A.K. Tiwari respectively.

The opposition A.G.P. and B.J.P. maintained that the
violence was a consequence of unabated influx of illegal
Bangladeshi migrants who wanted to settle on land owned by the
indigenous people. PTI DG