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Dhubri, July 16: Several minority organisations staged a protest across Assam today, demanding abolition of the territorial demarcation of Bodoland Territorial Council and protection of non-Bodos.
The Asomiya (Asom-Mia) Parishad observed a 12-hour Assam bandh and blockade on all the highways of the state, crippling the movement of vehicles in lower Assam, while the All Assam Minorities Students’ Union staged a dharna in front of Raj Bhavan. The non-Bodo Suraksha Samiti, which spearheads the movement for a separate Bodoland and had staged a rail blockade at Rangia recently, will stage a dharna at Dispur tomorrow. The organisations alleged that attacks on non-Bodos have increased manifold since the creation of BTC.
Condemning the July 6 attack on non-Bodo people at Musalmanpara near Bhowraguri in Kokrajhar district that killed two persons, Asomiya (Asom-Mia) Parishad president Miah Giasuddin Ahmed Hazarika said, “This was not an isolated incident. There is constant pressure on the non-Bodo people living in the BTC. We want the territorial boundary of BTC to be abolished so that the non-Bodo people can live in peace.”
He claimed that the bandh and blockade were successful in lower Assam and also demanded a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh to the injured.
The AAMSU demanded safety and security of the lives and property of the minorities and other non-Bodos living in the BTC, failing which it threatened to launch a movement. It also demanded exclusion of all non-Bodo villages having a population over 51 per cent from the BTC.
AAMSU president Abdur Rahim Ahmed said Kokrajhar deputy commissioner Donald Gilfelon and superintendent of police Jitmal Doley should be immediately suspended as violence against non-Bodos had increased manifold after they resumed office.
“Leave alone investigations into killings, kidnappings and extortions, it is a mystery that the police could neither identify nor arrest the culprits in the crime against non-Bodo people,” he alleged.
He demanded that the culprits in the July 6 attack be identified and booked and the victim’s families be compensated soon.
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