Akhil Gogoi addresses reporters in Guwahati on Tuesday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, May 15: Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) general secretary Akhil Gogoi today said an influential minister was suspected to be behind the alleged police atrocities on anti-dam protesters in Lakhimpur district on May 12.

“Chief minister Tarun Gogoi should investigate the matter. Since Lakhimpur SP P.K. Bhuyan is very close to the minister as both of them studied together in college, we have strong reasons to suspect the police official may have acted on instructions from the minister in order to put Tarun Gogoi in trouble,” he said, adding the minister is also believed to be involved in factionalism and dissidence in the government.

Police had assaulted and forcibly evicted anti-dam activists, including KMSS members from their camp on NH52 at Ghagor in Lakhimpur on the night of May 12, after a tanker was set ablaze by unidentified men.

The organisation had set up the camp to block transportation of construction materials and fuel to the site of Lower Subansiri hydroelectric power project at Gerukamukh on the Assam Arunachal Pradesh border.

Gogoi said KMSS and nine other organisations, including Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), Takam Mising Porin Kebang, All Tai Ahom Students’ Union, All Deori Students’ Union and All Assam Sonowal Kachari Students’ Union, would stage a statewide sit-in tomorrow, demanding release of 19 protesters, including five women, who were arrested by the police.

“We will intensify our agitation if they are not released,” Akhil Gogoi said.

He said the state government was trying to crush the democratic movement against construction of big dams and warned if the government does not give space to democratic agitation, then one day the space will be taken over by Maoists.

The KMSS leader also alleged the police and CRPF personnel not only mercilessly beat up anti-dam protesters but also outraged the modesty of women activists.

Akhil Gogoi also declared they would form a political party by 2015-16 but not enter electoral politics. “The party will not contest elections but try to bring a change in the political and economic condition of the state,” he said.

According to him, the people of Assam need an alternative since all political parties such as the Congress, BJP and AGP have failed to fulfil the aspirations of people and all of them have adopted the anti-people, neo-liberal economic policies initiated by Manmohan Singh.