Assam civil organisation demands immediate withdrawal of army
Morung Express News
February 18
Dimapur: A mass-based civil society group in Assam has demanded that the armed forces engaged in counter-insurgency should be removed from Assam immediately.
The group going by the name Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS) in a preliminary report aptly titled ‘Bloody Friday’ on the killing of innocent protestors in Tinsukia district (Assam) in February 2006 further demanded the government set up a commission of inquiry with a sitting Supreme Court judge at its helm, to apportion responsibility of guilt on the different sections of the administration and armed forces that contributed to the deaths.
The MASS also wanted the guilty police, paramilitary and army personnel to be awarded exemplary punishment for crimes against the people of the region and for willful and pre-meditated murder of innocent protestors.
“The draconian security laws that allow impunity to the armed forces personnel should be repealed with immediate effect and those accused of committing crimes against people of the region under these acts be tried in the courts of law”, it stated and pointed out that the peaceful resolution of the political conflicts in the Northeast and genuine commitment to talks by the government of India be urgently looked into.
Describing the killing the report stated that the deceased, six protestors and two residents of Kakopathar. They were among the thousands of residents that poured out from villages in and around Kakopathar and took to the streets demanding justice for the custodial death of Ajit Mahanta, a 37 years old resident of Dirak Goxaingaon in Kakopathar.
The report stated that Ajit Mahanta was picked up by personnel of the 13th Gorkha Regiment of the Indian Army stationed in the area. The incident took place on February 4, 2006. At about six in the evening, seven people came to Mahanta’s bamboo and thatched house where he lived with his mother, wife and two children. Five of the people were in uniform and the other two wore civilian clothes.
They asked for Mahanta and his wife replied that he had gone to a neighbor’s. The military personnel went searching for him and picked him up from the way. The Army later took his body to the Assam Medical College and Hospital claiming that he died in a fall. This happened on February 6, 2006.
Following the incident on February 7, residents and other neighboring villages came out and blocked the National Highway 52 in protest against the killing and demanding punishment for the guilty. It spread to places like Chabua, Pengeri and Doomdooma. However, the administration turned a blind eye to the situation and did not take the case seriously even after increasing protests, the report maintained. Then on February 10 people gathered at Dirak Chariali and started marching towards Kakopathar leading to indiscriminate firing by the Police and armed forces.
On the same day, police resorted to lathi charge at Chabua and curfew was imposed immediately after the incidents in Kakopathar and Chabua and others considered sensitive. The district administration and police took custody of the bodies of the victims.
It was only on February 12, 2006 that organizations like Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS) and Moran Students’ Union could receive the bodies which were then handed over to their families. The MASS report also stated that several people, including two schoolgirls, were still missing. Curfew and movements of armed forces have also hampered search and rescue operations.
The report also took exception of certain news reports in NE print media for being biased or lackadaisical, citing instances of certain news reports which the MASS maintained had seriously racist overtones when it came to reporting crimes committed by the state apparatus in Northeast India.
“As long as those dead are not members of a caste-elite from the Hindi-speaking heartland; pitiable Adivasis from mainland India’s favorite exploitable regions; or even impoverished and suicidal peasants, they are deemed expendable” the report stated.
“The selective amnesia amongst civil society institutions in mainland India contributes to the conspiracy of silence on the role of the security forces in administration and governance within the so-called peripheries of the Indian state.
While the ruling Congress indulged in much hand-wringing over what would be the correct course of action before the elections, the army displayed its characteristic lack of finesse and concern for the dignity of victims of its brutality by announcing a cash compensation for Ajit Mahanta’s family, rebuild his home and adopt his children. All this is truly material for B-grade scripts in Hindi cinema. Only, it happens to be the reality for the people of upper Assam” the reported stated.
“The shooting of the protestors was no accident, nor was it a mix up of tragic proportions. It is a known fact that the district administration was aware of the protests and the scale of discontent that was sparked off by Ajit Mahanta’s death in army custody” it reminded.
