Guwahati, March 30: Hands that weave silk went on a vandalism spree for the second day today to protect their craft and livelihood.

Sualkuchi, Assam’s silk village that produces traditional muga and pat textiles, wore a war zone look as artisans and local traders clashed with police in protest against the sale of Benarasi silk by wholesalers, leading to the clamping of an indefinite curfew in the silk hub.

Dispur has ordered a magisterial probe. In the evening, the Kamrup district administration prohibited sale of Benarasi silk items in the name of Sualkuchi silk in the district.

Tension that started yesterday at Sualkuchi, about 35km from here in Kamrup district, continued this morning with protesters forcefully collecting Benarasi silk items from shops and setting them on fire in front of police personnel.

The protesters alleged that a section of wholesalers had flooded the local shops with Benarasi silk items and local weavers and traders were fast losing the market.

The situation took an ugly turn around 1pm when protesters threw stones at police personnel who tried to stop them from burning garments belonging to two shops — Silk Museum and Silk India — at Noupara locality.

Two policemen were injured and this forced security personnel to lob tear gas shells and fire rubber bullets, leaving five injured.

Kamrup deputy commissioner S.K. Roy told The Telegraph that indefinite curfew was clamped at Sualkuchi around 2pm and the army was called out to maintain law and order.

“We were forced to fire rubber bullets as the protesters took the law into their hands and injured two policemen by pelting stones. Five civilians were injured and three were shifted to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital,” he said.

Roy said one column of army (around 100 personnel) had reached Sualkuchi around 4pm and was patrolling the troubled area.

Kamala Kanta Baishya, 57, of Noupara, who has been producing local textiles for 40 years, said the protests were outbursts of a growing discontent among artisans and local traders.

“Because of largescale sale of Benarasi items, we are fast losing market. Local weavers are giving up the handloom business and young boys here have become unemployed. Ten years ago, I had 20 looms, now I have only five. Some traders here have given our exquisite designs to artisans in Benaras who are producing items using our indigenous design, which are sold here at a lesser price. If we allow this to continue, we will lose our age-old business and Sualkuchi’s fame will also be lost,” he said over phone.

Another trader, Haren Baishya, blamed the government for the tension.

“Our local artisans need government support to improve their skills of design to compete in the market. But our government has done practically nothing for the weavers,” he said.

The Opposition AGP and BJP blamed the Congress-led government for failing to improve the textile industry of Sualkuchi.

Former chief minister and AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta told reporters that the Tarun Gogoi government had dumped the AGP’s “golden thread” scheme to promote local weavers as soon as it came to power in 2001, which “clearly shows its attitude of ignoring local interests”.

BJP general secretary Pradyut Bora blamed local legislator and minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for the situation.

He said Sarma had distributed yarn before election but “forgot” the Sualkuchi weavers after winning the election.

Sarma said some local “unscrupulous traders” were bringing powerloom items and selling at Sualkuchi, thereby affecting the local textile industry.

“A magisterial probe has been ordered. The government will discuss all the problems of Sualkuchi weavers and traders and take a decision within 15 days on how to improve their condition,” he said.

The All Assam Students’ Union also blamed the state government for the situation in Sualkuchi and said it would stage a protest tomorrow.