Residents of Dispur and Beltola beat up a man on Saturday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Nov. 24: Furious residents today turned on rampaging Adivasi protesters who were being dispersed by police, turning Beltola near the Assam Assembly into a battle zone for over three hours.

One person was killed in the clashes and over 250 injured. Unofficial sources put the number of dead at seven. Indefinite curfew has been clamped in Beltola.

The All Adivasi Students Association of Assam, who had taken out a rally demanding Scheduled Status for the community, has called a 36-hour statewide bandh from 5am on Monday.

In Calcutta, a sit-in by a minority front had snowballed into riots last Wednesday after groups of youths attacked police for trying to lift the roadblock. There were no casualties because the police chose to hold fire.

This afternoon, trouble started when thousands of activists of the Adivasi association headed towards the Assembly after holding a rally at Bongaon High School ground in Beltola to demand Scheduled Tribe status for the community at 11am.

Some of the processionists, who were armed with bows, arrows and canes, started damaging vehicles and vandalising shops as they marched. They went on a virtual rampage along Beltola-Basistha Road, damaging nearly 60 vehicles and several shops.

As the protesters neared the Assembly complex, police arrived and began wielding canes and bursting tear gas shells to disperse them.

The rallyists then raced into nearby lanes and by-lanes to escape the police. But local residents, enraged by their vandalism, trooped out of their homes and began assaulting them.

The 3.5-km stretch from Beltola Tinali to Dispur Last Gate then turned into a battle zone. For over three hours, the clashes continued.

“The police were mere spectators when the Adivasi activists attacked vehicles and shops,” said Amulya Hazarika, a resident of Survey area.

The police said they had no information that the Adivasi activists would take out such a huge procession.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi tonight appealed for peace. He came out in support of the local administration, saying that permission had not been granted for the rally.

“The magistrate on duty barred the participants from taking out the rally, but they forced their way past him and entered the Dispur area. The processionists were the first to indulge in vandalism,” a release issued by the chief minister’s office said.

Gogoi asked additional chief secretary P.P. Verma to probe the incident and submit his report “immediately”.

The government has announced a compensation of Rs 3 lakh to families of the victims and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

Many parts of the city observed a spontaneous bandh after news of the incident broke. Several offices were shut down from 2pm.