Bongaigaon, June 12: Bodo leaders took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of achche din at a meeting organised to mark the 30th Bodoland Martyr's Day here today.

Addressing a gathering at at Bijni in Chirang district, former Kokrajhar MP Sansuma Khunggur Bwiswmu-thiary said, "Three years have already passed but we Bodos have not yet seen Modi's achche din. Modiji please show us your good days within the next two years. I don't know, only the people know what they will do after this period."

Former MP Urkhaw Gwra Brahma criticised the Sarbananda Sonowal government in Assam for not "officially honouring Bodo martyrs yet as they do for martyrs of the Assam Movement". The state government had earlier this year feted martyrs of Assam Movement in Guwahati.

In 1987, Sujit Narzary, a student of Class X of Kokrajhar High and Multi Purpose School, had died of a head injury received when miscreants stoned the bus in which he was returning to Kokrajhar with Absu activists after attending a rally in Guwahati. The bus was attacked at at Tihu Chawk in Nalbari district on this day in 1987. Since then Sujit has been called the first martyr of the Bodoland Movement and the day is observed as Martyr's Day by Absu.

Sujit's father, Mangal Singh Narzary, 68, a farmer and a resident of Kokrajhar district, while paying homage to his son at the venue today, said, "My son's sacrifice will be purposeful only when we get Bodoland".

Absu spokesperson Jayanta Basumatary said 1,135 Absu activists were martyred during the Bodoland Movement between 1987 and 1993.

Absu president Pramod Boro said, "We believe in non-violent movement and we are sustaining because of our struggle for existence and identity. Development and economic packages cannot solve Bodo political and constitutional issues. For this, an inclusive approach from the government is needed."

Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gagong Apang, who was the chief guest, paid tribute to the "Bodoland martyrs" and said it was not good for the state and the country if problems of the indigenous community remained unsolved. During the 1989 Gohpur massacre of Bodos by miscreants, in which 532 Bodo people were killed, many took shelter in Arunachal and Apang, as the then chief minister of the state, had extended every help to the Bodo population.

NDFB (Progressive) chairman Dhiren Boro and general secretary Govinda Basumatary and People's Joint Action Committee for Bodoland Movement adviser Gangadhar Ramchiary were present at the meet.