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Assam: Violence in Bodo belt, vehicles torched during bandh |
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A trail of violence on a day when the National Democratic Front of Boroland was to have talked peace with New Delhi scarred four Lower Assam districts.
Arsonists went about torching vehicles, including a magistrate’s official jeep, for defying a 12-hour bandh clamped by the NDFB to protest an attack on one of its members. The bandh announcement coincided with the Bodo militant group’s refusal to sit for a meeting of the joint ceasefire monitoring group on Feb. 29.
As many as nine vehicles were torched in the four districts of Kokrajhar, Baksa, Udalguri and Chirang. All four districts are under the Bodoland Territorial Council, controlled by former leaders of the NDFB’s erstwhile rival, the Bodo Liberation Tigers.
In Kokrajhar, people trying to enforce the bandh targeted the jeep of a magistrate at Sikhargaon, under Dotma police station. A motorcycle was set ablaze at the same place.
Another group of arsonists struck at Tilipara under Gossaigaon police station, setting fire to a van that was on its way to Bengal from Bauraguri. A bike was torched at Bismuri and another damaged at Tinali.
A Sumo Victa met the same fate at Labdanguri in Baksa district. Militants of the NDFB were allegedly involved in this incident. A mob laid siege to a designated NDFB camp in retaliation and set it ablaze. Nobody was injured, the police said.
Bandh enforcers also torched two Mahindra Safaris at Kusrabari in the same district.
In Udalguri, a Mahindra van and a scooter were gutted. Arsonists smashed the windshield of an Assam State Transport Corporation bus in the same district.
Although matric and college examinations were held as scheduled, examinees had a difficult time reaching the centres. Train services were not affected.
The NDFB bandh was declared after one of its men, N. Muluksa, was attacked at Aila Chowk in Baksa district. Muluksa was seriously injured in the shooting.
The militant group has long been complaining about atrocities by the police and its “rivals”, an allusion to members of the disbanded Bodoland Liberation Tigers.
On the other hand, the Bodoland People’s Front took out a bike rally to protest the alleged intimidation of civilians by NDFB members.
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