Dispur on Opposition's firing line!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 10: Dispur is on the firing line of the Opposition parties following the police firing to disperse an unruly mob at Dhula in Darrang district on Wednesday leading to the killing of a person and injury to four others. It all started with the death of a person in police custody in Dhula police station on Tuesday night, leading an unruly mob gheraoing the police station on Wednesday.

Reacting to the incident sharply, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Ripun Bora said: “We’re sending a team to the spot on Thursday for an on-the-spot visit to take stock of the situation there.” 

Bora said: “An innocent labourer of Atakata Sar under Dhula police station in Darrang district was killed. The incident didn’t end there. The police fired on those who protested the custodial death, killing one on the spot and injuring four others. Human rights are being rampantly violated in the State under the BJP rule, proving it to be fascism.”

Meanwhile, CLP Leader Debabrata Saikia, in a statement issued to the press, condemned the incident and termed the official inquiry ordered by the government as idequate. He demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident because violence was triggered by the alleged murder of an accused person while in police custody. The Congress Legislature Party leader said that incidents of firing, use of teargas shells and lathicharge by the police became frequent in the past several months. He cited the example of one person killed in police firing in Goalpara on June 30, 2017, the brutal lathicharge upon college students in Margherita on September 19, 2017 and a similar action against peaceful protesters in Golaghat on December 19, 2017. He added that the phenomenon started with the Silapathar incident on March 6, 2017 and recurred even in the case of ABMSU activists in Salakati on October 26, 2017 and the eviction drive in Amching reserve forest on the outskirts of Guwahati on November 27, 2017. Saikia said that the belligerent policy adopted by the police was creating concern and outrage among the people in the State. 

The AIUDF also came down heavily on Dispur and questioned as to why the police resort to firing as and when people protest their action in Darrang. The party said the incident at Dhula was not only such incident in the district, and that the district had witnessed many such incidents in the recent past. “How dare police fire on innocent people in Darrang district!  Four farmers were killed at Kharupetia in 2011 when Tarun Gogoi was the Chief Minister. Dispur did order in inquiry, but the guilty police officials have not been punished as yet. The worse is that the next of the kin of the deceased farmers are yet to get any compensation, whatsoever, from the government. We don’t want suspension of any police officials involved in the firing. We want registration of crimil cases against them for their punishment. We also want compensation to the next of kin of those killed at Rs 10 lakh each and Rs 1 lakh each to the injured.”  The Muslim Students’ Union (MSU) demanded exemplary punishment to the guilty and compensation to the next of kin of the killed and the injured.