The ASTC bus that was burnt by protesters. A Telegraph picture

Oct. 31: A schoolteacher’s death in a highway mishap last evening led over 5,000 residents of 10 villages to block NH 52 for over five hours today and set a Guwahati-bound Assam State Transport Corporation bus ablaze.

The protesters converged on Dumunichowki, 25 km from Mangaldoi, at the crack of dawn and stayed put on the highway till 11 am.

Scores of Guwahati-bound vehicles from North Lakhimpur, Rangapara, Biswanath Chariali, Tezpur, Dhekiajuli, Udalguri, Tangla, Kharupetia, Mangaldoi, Mazbat did not proceed beyond Sipajhar and Mangaldoi.

The incident that triggered the outpouring of anger occurred around 7 pm yesterday. Merajul Hoque, head teacher of Bornoi High School at Saraighat, in Kamrup district, was about to disembark from a Kharupetia-bound ASTC bus near the Dumunichowki checkpoint when he fell and was run over by the same vehicle. He died of critical injuries at Guwahati Medical College and Hospital at 10 pm.

Hoque had gone to Guwahati on Monday for official work. While returning home by bus, he requested the bus conductor and the handyman to stop the vehicle at Dumunichowki, but they allegedly refused to do so. Some witnesses claimed the schoolteacher was pushed by the bus conductor.

On receiving news of Hoque’s death late in the night, some youths of the area pelted vehicles with stones. Several vehicles that were passing by ended up with broken windshields.

Irate residents who gathered on the highway this morning said most ASTC buses refuse to stop at Dumunichowki, which is the entry point to Darrang district.

As emotions ran high, some of the protesters hijacked a Guwahati-bound bus and forced the driver to take it to the bank of the Bornadi river, about 300 metres from the highway. They then set it ablaze.

Darrang deputy commissioner Sailendra Kumar Nath and superintendent of police Rounak Ali Hazarika rushed to the spot to pacify the protesters, who refused to disperse until the police arrested the conductor, handyman and driver of the bus in which Hoque was travelling.

They also demanded the cancellation of the bus permit, a permanent stoppage point for ASTC buses at Dumunichowki and Rs 20 lakh in compensation to Hoque’s family.

Nath said the administration would consider their demands, after which they withdrew the blockade.

The deputy commissioner announced Rs 10,000 as ex gratia to the schoolteacher’s family.