Public protests erupted demanding the resettlement of some 800 families evicted from the land on which they had been living for decades.
Violent clashes broke out in Sipajhar in Assam’s Darrang district on Thursday as police tried to clear away “encroachers”, in which two people were killed and around 20 injured in police firing. Following the incident, the Assam government ordered a probe headed by a retired judge of the Gauhati High Court.
Public protests erupted demanding the resettlement of some 800 families evicted from the land on which they had been living for decades.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s younger brother Darrang Superintendent of Police Sushant Biswa Sarma claimed that the protesters pelted stones at policemen and others armed with sharp weapons.
Police initially opened fire in the air to disperse the demonstrators, but were unsuccessful, forcing uniformed men to open fire on people, killing two and injuring at least ten others. Went. Around 10 more people, including policemen, were injured in the clashes.
Meanwhile, a purported video of the incident has gone viral on social media in which a photographer is kicking a man, who is possibly dead. Videos showed hundreds of policemen firing at unseen targets from behind trees, and a man in a vest and lungi running down a dusty road. A photographer ran after him, until men in uniform surrounded the man, as shots were fired in the background.
Read also | Kovid-19 recovery rate in Assam crosses 98%
The photographer was seen being taken out by a policeman, but soon returned, jumped on his body, and hit him with something he had picked up nearby. A red circle of blood from a bullet wound on her chest, and a ‘gomosa’, a traditional stole associated with Assamese pride, lay next to her, momentarily lifting her left arm, before she lay down .
Bijay Shankar Baniya, a professional photographer appointed by the district administration to document the situation, has been arrested.
Eight policemen are also among the injured. Assistant sub-inspector Moniruddin has been admitted to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital in a critical condition. The deceased have been identified as Saddam Hussein and Sheikh Farid.
The SP said the protesters have been dispersed and the eviction operation is on. The situation has been brought under control but tension remains. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Assam is on state-sponsored fire. I stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters in the state – no child in India deserves this.”
Assam minister Ranjit Kumar Das, reacting to the encroachment, said, “Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is also the state’s home minister, will take action in this matter as the public has given us the responsibility to protect Assam, and We are all with him.” Run.
Read also | Assam, Nagaland chief ministers hold closed-door meeting with NSCN(IM)
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in Guwahati that the eviction drive would not be stopped. “The police has been assigned the responsibility of clearing the land from the encroachers and they will continue it till the work is completed. The eviction will stop after dark and will resume tomorrow,” he said.
The Darrang district administration has since Monday vacated 602.40 hectares of land, evicted 800 families and demolished four ‘illegally’ built religious structures in Sipajhar.
The chief minister had visited the place on June 7 and inspected the river areas allegedly encroached by “illegal settlers” near the Dholpur Shiva temple and asked the district administration to initiate a community agriculture project in the area. was ordered to vacate.
Assam Pradesh Congress President Bhupen Kumar Bora has demanded a judicial inquiry into the “barbaric action” of police firing on protesters. “The act of eviction itself is inhumane, especially during the COVID situation,” he said.
He said that even though the Supreme Court had given a direction against eviction during the pandemic situation, the Sarma-led state government is behaving in an autocratic manner to evict residents of Dholpur, who have been eviction since the 1970s. Living in this area, he said.
Bora alleged that the people of the area were being harassed repeatedly by the BJP government since it came to power in 2016.
(with inputs from PTI)
Read also | Sarbananda Sonowal likely to be elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Assam
Read also | AFSPA extended for six more months in Assam
.