A deserted market area in Bongaigaon on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Kokrajhar, July 10: The 36-hour bandh called by the All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union in lower Assam since yesterday in support of their demand for a separate Kamatapur state witnessed sporadic violence.

A woman constable, Bhula Mitra, was hit on the head with a cane when she tried to stop a group of bandh supporters, mostly women, from blocking the Kokrajhar-Dotma-Gossaigaon road at Chandrapara. Mitra was taken to the Kokrajhar Rupnath Brahma Civil Hospital.

Yesterday, Monser Ali, a resident of Chirang district, suffered burn injuries on his hands and legs when activists of the students’ union set him on fire at Singimari under Basugaon police station of the district. “I was on my way to Kursakati from Basugaon when a group of about 10 youths stopped me and poured petrol over me and my bike before setting fire. I jumped into a nearby canal to douse myself,” Ali said from his bed at RNB Civil Hospital here where he is being treated.

The bandh has affected normal life in the lower Assam districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang and Bongaigaon. These are among the 11 districts of Assam and six of West Bengal that the Kamtapur supporters want as a separate state.

Business institutions like banks, markets and shops remained closed in the three districts. Vehicles remained off the road, posing problems for the people. Jayashree, a mother of two, said, “I was released from hospital today after a week but could not go home because of the bandh. I have left my children in the care of my in-laws and don’t have the money to hire a vehicle.”

A vegetable vendor said, “This bandh culture is killing us. What are we going to eat if we can’t do business?”

This is the fourth bandh in the region called by various organisations since July 2, when the United Democratic Peoples’ Front (UDPF) had called a bandh demanding elections to the rural and urban committees in the BTC area, a CBI inquiry into the multi-crore scams in the state, roll back of oil price hike and against the hike in prices of essential commodities. On July 5, Opposition parties called a nationwide bandh in protest against the hike in prices of oil and essential commodities.

On July 7, the Ex-BLT Welfare Society and Surrendered NDFB Welfare Association staged a three-hour rail roko to demand proper implementation of the Bodo Accord.

On July 8, the UDPF again called a 12-hour BTAD bandh in protest against the expulsion of BTC member Pradip Daimari of the UDPF from the BTC House.