From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: The raging issue of availability of illegal weapons in the communally sensitive Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTC) area has taken a new turn with the BTC chief and leader of the ruling Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) Hagrama Mohilary being accused by once close associate and now a BPF legislator Hitesh Basumatary of patronizing use of illegal weapons and triggering violence in the area.
The legislator also alleged that Mohilary’s autocratic way of functioning was one of the key reasons behind the communal violence that rocked the BTC area recently.
The legislator also said that there was nothing new in use of illegal weapons in the BTC area to serve the interests of Mohilary and company.
He pointed out that the BPF led by Mohilary has raised hue and cry after Assam Governor JB Patnaik recently gave strict instruction to Assam government to seize all the illegal weapons in the BTC area.
Basumatary accused Mohilary of converting the BPF party, which has been in power in the BTC since the formation of the council, into his fiefdom where senior leaders no longer have any say.
Basumatary who was stated to be expelled from BPF for indulging in anti-party activities, said that he was yet to receive any formal communication in black and white from the party regarding his reported expulsion. “Hagrama and Co can hardly dare to expel me from the party,” the legislator said.
Meanwhile, a senior BPF leader Chandan Brahma, who is a close aide of Mohilary, has dismissed the allegation made by party MLA Hitesh Basumatary against the BTC chief as baseless and motivated.
Brahma stated that people of BTC area knew that Hagrama Mohilary was not behind the communal clashes and it would be proved in the CBI inquiry into the violence.
Brahma also denied availability of illegal weapons with former militants of the now disbanded Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT). It was the former BLT ultras who formed the BPF after signing of the Bodo Peace Accord in 2005 that led to formation of the BTC.