Tarun Gogoi visits the injured in the Mathurapur bomb blast. Picture by UB Photos

Mathurapur (Sivasagar), Aug. 11: He shares his name with the jailed Ulfa vice-chairman, but the similarity ends there.

The most striking difference between vegetable vendor Pradip Gogoi and the militant leader of the same name is that one condemns violence, while the other condones it. Two months after losing his 17-year-old son Probin in the blast that ripped through a bus near this nondescript town, Pradip has a simple message for the Ulfa: “Stop these mindless acts of violence.”

As it goes about spreading terror in the run-up to another Independence Day, the militant group could well ignore this appeal by a poor vegetable seller. But Pradip is not alone. Kalpana Gogoi, 53, has a similar message. “Please, for God’s sake, do not trample on the dreams of happy families,” she says.

Pradip and Kalpana did not know each other till they were united in tragedy. Of the five persons killed in the bus explosion, one was her husband, Khargeswar Gogoi.

“They (the militants) do not know what injustice they have done to me. The head of our family is gone and I am being forced to virtually beg to make ends meet. How will I marry off my three daughters and help my son complete his education?” Kalpana asks, wiping the tears streaming down her cheeks.

Both families have yet to get the monetary compensation promised by the government. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi had visited Mathurapur the very next day after the blast occurred and assured the affected families that ex-gratia would be disbursed within a fortnight. He even raised the amount from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh.

Union minister of state for defence Bijoy Krishna Handique and Dibrugarh MP Sarbananda Sonowal, too, visited the area with a bouquet of sympathy and promises, but nothing that would be of help to the bereaved families.

Kalpana, who has never done the rounds of government offices, does not know which door to knock on. Her husband had retired from a teaching job at a school in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh in March 2003 and purchased a four-bigha plot of land near Napuk and built a four-room kutcha house there. The family now has nothing except this small piece of property.

Pradip, who had dreamt of a good future for his son, has stopped hoping for any compensation. A resident of Maibela Co-operative Village, he says: “It is upto them (the political leadership) to give us money or not. My appeal is to the Ulfa to stop killing innocents.”

The Ulfa had initially denied any involvement in the incident.