Guwahati: Crime and violence pushed Assam to national headlines in the year 2012.
Clashes between two communities in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) since July threatened to take communal overtures and spread to other parts of the state.
What started as miscreant activity took shades of ethnic clash rapidly as a hapless administration groped in the initial days to control the violence with reports of people being killed and houses being torched pouring in daily.
The sense of fear and insecurity gripped the people in BTAD to such an extent that they resorted to blocking railway tracks to draw attention for their safety.
All trains coming and going of Assam were cancelled for three days as people squatted on tracks, pelted stones on passing trains and the Railways and the government failed to provide adequate security.
The Army was deployed in the violence-hit areas and attempts at restoring peace were made from the grass-roots level to the highest offices.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Union ministers and Opposition leaders made a beeline to the state and sought to soothe the insecure populace of the affected areas.
The situation gradually eased and normalcy was restored after more than a month, but not before more than 100 people were killed and over 4.50 lakh people displaced.
The violence once again brought to the fore the illegal migration problem in the state as the clash in BTAD was triggered by a sense of identity crisis among the indigenous Bodo community.
Repercussions of the threat of influx was felt across the state as it witnessed an almost similar agitation against the problem as it had done during the Assam Agitation of 1979-85.
Mass rallies were organised against infiltration in various parts of the state and pushed to the wall, the government came out with a white paper on the influx issue.
Though the violence abated with time, the tension and discontent over the influx issue and alleged illegal settlers continue to simmer underneath.
Another case that hogged limelight at the national level was the molestation of a young girl by a group of men on the streets of Guwahati on July nine.
As the gang of men groped and molested the girl on GS Road in the heart of the city late that summer evening, the city’s and state’s image as a whole took a beating.
After the video footage was picked up and aired by national news channels and columns in leading dailies devoted to the incident, the nation cried out in shame and anguish.
The incident saw transfers of a number of police officers in the city and the media was also embroiled in the controversy, with the editor-in-chief of a local channel resigning and a reporter of his channel, who had filmed the molestation incident, also arrested for allegedly inciting the mob to harass the girl.
The reporter was later acquitted of all charges by a court, which held 11 others guilty and sentenced the culprits to jail terms.
Though terrorist activities were on the wane with many groups engaged in peace talks with the government, breakaway factions and splinter groups of various outfits like the ULFA and NDFB continued to make their presence felt.
Main city Guwahati was witness to at least two bomb blasts during the year, while blasts in various parts of the state from the eastern ends to the westernmost fringes also disturbed peace. (UNI)