Women and children at the Bhakatpara relief camp in Udalguri on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Udalguri, Oct. 16: “Ordinary” life, which had seemed so mundane till last month, is a luxury that more than one lakh homeless people have been praying for in Darrang and Udalguri for the past fortnight.

When the communal clashes broke out on October 3 and snowballed over the next few days killing 23 people in Darrang and 30 in Udalguri, most had run to relief camps with little more than a bundle of clothes and utensils.

Some were Bodo, some were Khatun and all had lost, well, everything.

When Assam Speaker Tanka Bahadur Rai led an all-party delegation to Bhakatpara and Khruakata relief camps today, there were no demands, only questions. “Is it safe now? Is there enough security?”

Bhakatpara is among 44 camps which are home to 68,000 inmates in Darrang. Khruakata relief camp, is one of 43 temporary sheds sheltering 59,958 people in Udalguri.

Among the sea of anxious faces, a child managed a broken-toothed smile — a crushingly misplaced glee in the gloom. He asked no questions, only looked pleadingly for some assurance that he could soon go home.

“Three of our Garo acquaintances were killed in front of security personnel. They wanted to chase us away but we somehow survived,” Thageswari Boro told the team of politicians.

“Can we return now?” she asked.

The possibility seems remote, given that four houses were set on fire this evening at Hatkhula near Rowta in Udalguri. The families, a senior district administration official said, had spent the day in the houses and had returned to the relief camp in the evening.

On the other side of the divide, Rahima Khatun broke down recounting her twin tragedies.

Her 15-year-old nephew was shot dead by unidentified assailants while her niece died from shock. “I have lost my dear ones. They killed them. Even if we want to, we cannot return home,” she sobbed.

Both sides have suffered immensely. Some of lost their families, some their dwellings and most will not be able to reap the benefits of their harvest.

“I appeal to the government to save their crops. It is really sad that the government has not been able to instil confidence even after two weeks. In camp after camp, they all complained about insecurity,” AGP president Chandramohan Patowary said.

The Opposition members also demanded an all-party meeting to investigate if the clashes were the result of any administrative loophole, a political conspiracy or instigated by external forces.