GUWAHATI: Vociferous protests against Tuesday’s dastardly killing of the president of All Bodoland Minority Students’ Union (ABMSU), Lafiqul Islam, marked the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Council (BTC) and some others parts of Assam on Wednesday. The protesting organisations from different communities, caste and religions condemned the murder in unison and demanded immediate arrest of the culprit.
Meanwhile, Assam police have claimed to have nabbed the prime accused behind the murder that occurred in Kokrajhar town in western Assam in broad daylight.
The MP Kokrajhar parliamentary constituency, Nabo Kumar Sarania, however, termed it a political murder and demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.
The opposition Congress has demanded a CBI inquiry into the killing to nab the real culprits behind the murder of the student’s leader and accused the BJP-led government of failing in the law and order front.
A bandh called by the ABMSU in protest against the killing of its leader shut down the BTC areas in Assam today even as security have been tightened in the area to prevent any untoward incident in he the wake of the killing.
The Director General of the state police, Muktesh Sahay is camping on Kokrajhar to oversee the investigation into the murder as well the situation unfolding there. The DGP was rushed to Kokrajhar by chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal while special DG (law and order) Kuladhar Saikia was rushed to Udalguri area in the BTC to ensure order in the wake of the killing.
Assam’s finance, education, health etc., minister, Himanta Bishwa Sarma said that that the DGP informed him that the prime culprit behind the killing had been arrested.
A notorious kingpin of a cattle smuggling racket, Antaz Ali was arrested in connection with the murder, the owner of the hardware store where Islam was shot dead too was arrested by police. It has been learnt that the slain students’ leader was under threat from cattle smugglers for his firm stand against thriving racket that smuggles cattle to Bangladesh.
Sarma appreciated the ‘mature’ stand taken by various organisations from different communities in the state in condemning the murder of the ABMSU leader in unison and efforts taken by the people all over the state not to allow the post-incident situation to take a communal turn in the sensitive BTC area.