GUWAHATI: Three cops were hurt and several protestors were injured when Assam police and CRPF personnel clashed with protestors of Koch Rajbongshi Sanmilani squatted for hours since 6 A.M. on Monday on the railway tracks A Chautara station in Gossaingaon in Assam to press for their demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
The Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), P J Sharma informed that authorities were forced to divert a few trains including Guwahati-New Delhi Rajdhani Express and Guwahati Bangalore Express besides controlling/cancelling several trains at different station.
A large number of long distance trains including the goods trains have been controlled at different Stations of Rangiya and Alipurduar divisions while two local passengers Alipurduar-Kamakhya-Alipurduar and New Jalpaiguri-Rangiya have been cancelled. New Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express and Guwahati-Bangalore Express have been diverted to run via alternative route of Fakiragram-Golokganj-New Cooch Behar. Though no long distance up and down trains were cancelled for the day some trains have been controlled at different stations.
As Protestors from All Assam Koch-Rajbongshi Sanmilani sat on the railway track at Chatuara station in since 6 A.M. to press for their long-standing demand for ST status to Koch-Rajbongshi community, the local administration initially convinced the leaders of the protestors to lift the blockade so that railway traffic in not affected.
However, after sometime, all of a sudden they came back on the railway track . As the police and paramilitary forces tried to evict them from the track, some of the protestors pelted stones at the police and security personnel who then resorted to cane charge, tear gas shelling and even few round of black firing.
The cops –Ataur Rahman, Abhiranjan Kumar and Bajiur Haque – were injured in the clashes while several protestors were also injured. The forces later managed to chase away the protestors from the track.
Koch-Rajbongshi is one of the six ethnic communities in Assam who have been demanding ST status for a long-time. Several rounds of meeting with the leaders of these community organizations with the central government failed to resolve the issue so far adding to the frustration of these communities. The Koch-Rajbingshis claim that they are over a 70 lakh strong population in Assam, thereby the largest among the ethnic groups.
