Guwahati: Normal life was affected in Assam on Saturday following a 12-hour bandh called by the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) in protest against the arrest of RTI activist Akhil Gogoi. No untoward incident had been reported so far, official said. There was, however, no impact of the bandh in the Barak Valley districts in southern Assam and Dhubri district in the Brahmaputra valley. Commercial places, financial institutions, educational institutions and several private offices remained closed. All long distance vehicles, including private buses, were off the road, while a skeleton city bus service of the state owned ASTC plied in Guwahati. Flights operated as usual though the Northeast Frontier Railway cancelled five pairs of trains on Saturday and Sunday due to ‘unavoidable reason’. Akhil Gogoi, leader of KMSS was on Friday arrested in connection with the Dispur clash in which three persons were killed. In upper Assam’s Jorhat a huge rally was taken out by the Youth Congress supporting Akhil Gogoi’s arrest and opposing the KMSS bandh.
Akhil was arrested as he was addressing the media in the Guwahati Press Club and was remanded in three-day police custody by Kamrup Chief Judicial Magistrate Robin Phukan.
Ten cases, including four non-bailable ones, were registered against Akhil with the police accusing him of being responsible for leading the violent activists demanding land deed for the government land which they had encroached on the hills.
Meanwhile, people protested against government’s eviction drive in the Lalmati area and demanded immediate release of Akhil Gogoi.
Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in huge numbers across the state.
Several organisations, including the Brihattar Asomiya Yuva Mancha and Asomiya Yuva Mancha, have supported the bandh which was also called against the death of three people, among them a nine-year-old child, in the clash. (PTI)