- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE north-eastern Indian state of Assam is in the headlines again for wrong reasons. On Thursday (23), clashes broke out in Sipajhar area of the state’s Darrang district after thousands of people protested against the state government’s ongoing eviction drive against “illegal encroachers”, leaving at least two persons dead and several, including policemen, injured.
In one horrific video that went viral, a protester armed with a stick was shot at from close quarters and was found to be beaten up and jumped upon as the body laid motionless on the ground. The disturbing footage sparked an outrage across the country and later in the day, the state’s police said they arrested the man who was seen jumping on the body in the video.
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Top police officer GP Singh confirmed the deaths of the civilians and injuries to nine policemen and said the condition of one among them was critical. Other sources told The Indian Express that the police “did what they had to do” in “self defence”.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who belongs to prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and took charge earlier this year, set up an inquiry into the circumstances that led to the violence. A retired judge of the state’s Gauhati High Court will lead the probe.
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Sarma, whose administration found itself in an ugly confrontation with neighbouring state Mizoram, told the media on Thursday before the violence took a worse turn that the police have been given the “responsibility to carry out an eviction and free up the land”. “They will do their duty. As per information with me, people attacked police using sticks, daos (a kind of weapon) etc. The eviction will go as per plan till 4 pm (local time).” A top-level police officer in Darrang who also defended the police’s action is incidentally the brother of Sarma.
The chief minister said, “An eviction drive was initiated with an agreed principle. That landless will be provided 2 acres each as per land policy and representatives [of locals] agreed [to that]. We expected no resistance but about 10,000 people gheraoed Assam Police and used violence. Then police retaliated.” Some of the protesters allegedly hurled stones at the police and attacked the officials with sharp weapons.
Former Indian National Congress president Rahul Gandhi slammed the incident tweeting “Assam is on state-sponsored fire. I stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the state — no children of India deserve this.”
Assam is on state-sponsored fire.
I stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the state- no children of India deserve this. pic.twitter.com/syo4BTIXKH
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 23, 2021
Sarma defended his government saying, “You cannot demean the state government with one video. Since 1983, that area is known for killings. Otherwise, normally people don’t encroach on temple land. I have seen encroachments all around. A peaceful eviction drive was agreed upon, but who instigated?”
“Our 11 police personnel have been injured. We will carry out an inquiry on how the cameraman came into the scene, and why he tried to overpower that particular person. We have ordered a judicial probe,” he said.
