From Our Correspondent & PTI
Guwahati: A latest series of violent clashes so far claimed lives of nine persons and left 15 injured in Kokrajhar district under Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) of Assam forcing the administration to impose indefinite curfew in Kokrajhar town and Section 144 CrPC in the entire district.
The series on violent clashes were stoked by an incident on Thursday evening when unidentified miscreants fired upon two minority leaders at Magurmari under Kokrajhar police station.
Founder president of All Bodoland Minority Students’ Union (ABMSU) Mohibul Islam and former leader of All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU), Abdul Siddique Sheikh were seriously injured in the attack. They were later referred to Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) here.
In a retaliatory attack, four former militants of now disbanded Bodoland Liberation Tiger (BLT) -Pradip Bodo (32), Jonson Bodo (36), Nip Goyari (25) and Jamin Goyari (24) – were lynched to death by a mob of people at Joypur under Kokrajhar police station on Friday night.
Two motor-cycles belonging to the former BLT men were burnt by the mob.
The incident sparked retaliatory attack in several parts of the district in the wee hours on Saturday.
Two persons were killed and four others were injured when armed miscreants opened indiscriminate fire in two minority villages at Duramara, Narabari under Kokrajhar Police Station. Four persons were injured in a similar attack at Kodalloa village under Fakiragram Police Station.
Meanwhile, four of the injured in group clashes have been rushed to Guwahati Medical College Hospital here while rest are being treated in the civil hospital in Kokrajhar.
A 60-year-old man Shahadat Hussain was killed and four others injured in firing in Duramari area under Kokrajhar police station, the sources said.
A 14-year old boy, Zakir Ali, was stoned to death by unidentified persons in Narabari area of Kokrajhar Road, the sources said.
Assam government has announced Rs 2 lakh compensation to next of kin of all those have been killed in the latest spell of violence in Kokrajhar. The injured will be provided Rs 50,000 each.
Bodoland Territorial Council chief Hagrama Mohilary urged Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to send more forces to the BTC area. Appealing to the people to maintain peace and harmony he alleged that the disturbances was a ‘political conspiracy to defame the Bodo people’.
Mohilary said any attempt to break communal harmony would be seriously dealt with. A senior police official, meanwhile, informed that additional nine companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in sensitive areas of the district as the tension ran high in the area.