MBOSE stir: Sept 30 police firing
TURA: A young man who had a brush with death as a 26-year-old student on the tragic Friday afternoon of September 30, 2005 surviving a police firing in which he sustained multiple bullet wounds has died.
Becking R Marak would have been 37 this August.
He passed away at his home in Dalu town on Wednesday.
He was one among several dozens to sustain bullet injuries in police firing which resulted in the death of nine people, mostly students.
On that ill-fated Friday, 11 years ago, angry mobs of students and the general public clashed with police at two district headquarters- Tura and Williamnagar.
The protestors were up in arms against the state government’s handling of the MBOSE ‘revamping’ which many in the Garo Hills had termed as the bifurcation of the education board and dilution of powers from its headquarters in Tura.
Four people were killed at Tura’s Chandmari ground when security forces opened fire to contain stone pelting by thousands of angry protestors. Among the dead was a young teenage school boy and a college student.
Another three students died in similar firing at Rongrenggre field of Williamnagar, the same day.
Becking Marak, despite surviving the ordeal, went on to spend most of his life seeking medical treatment. He had lost the ability of free movement due to a bullet wound which damaged his spine.
As part of the government compensation for the victims of that most tragic event in the history of Garo Hills, Becking was allotted a government job but his injuries left him bedridden for most of his remaining life.
He underwent surgery at Vellore on his spine but never fully recovered. He was doing his Masters from NEHU when fate intervened on that tragic day.
“He lived with a lot of pain from the wounds but that didn’t stop him from smiling and welcoming people who called on him at his home. Even strangers were welcomed by him on any day. “He was a fighter,” said Becking’s close family friend Onthim Ch Marak.
“Tura always had a special place in his heart and his face would light up each time we took him to town,” recalled Onthim fondly. He was laid to rest at Dalu in the presence of family and friends on Thursday.