:: News Plus

Bodo rebels dare to kill villagers with prior notice

Manoj Anand

If the mayhem of central Assam’s Sonitpur district is any indicator, it is time the government should have a sincere approach instead of eyewash to ensure the safety and security of the common people in Assam. At Bhimajuli village, the bloodstains of villagers killed in Sunday’s mayhem may have dried up, but the smell of terror was still fresh. The outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) rebels massacred 12 people, including women and children, after giving prior warning but the administration failed to come to the rescue of the poor villagers.

The outfit had asked the villagers either to vacate the village or pay the money within a week time. Most of villagers who belong to Nepali, Adivasi and Assamese communities survive on petty trade.

The role of the state administration could be gauged by the fact that the incident took place in the backyard of the Balichang police outpost. The administration had posted a company of Service Selection Board (SSB) recently at Mohotolipathar nearby the village adjoining the border of Arunchal Pradesh. It is also the testimonial to the fact the administration had the information of growing militant activities in the area. Though, district SP Surendra Kumar denies that they had any prior information.

The terror of NDFB rebel in the area was such that resident of Salikhati, a village of Karbi community close to Bhimajuli village, were forced to vacate their village only a few days before the massacre. The poor villagers were served with extortion notices by Bodo rebels. Fearing the outfit, the residents of the village are still taking shelter at Noharani village for past one week. The local MLA, Padma Hazarika, had brought all these incidents to the notice of chief minister Tarun Gogoi besides the local administration.

A day after the massacre, when this correspondent visited the area, the 35-km stretch from sub-division headquarters of Biswanath Chariali to Bhimajuli looked terror-stricken with roadside shops remaining closed and groups of young men huddled at every corner. Closer to Bhimajuli, hordes of Adivasi young men were seen armed with bows, arrows and other sharp weapons while youths of the dominant Nepali community were marching with khukris tucked inside their shirts.

It was not just the men. Women, too, were marching towards Bhimajuli while children and the elderly stayed indoors. No one on the road was willing to talk. At the entrance to Bhimjuli, a group of non-Bodo youths was politely frisking a black bag that a Bodo woman was carrying. The villagers were very angry as a local trader Ramesh Chandra Soren told this newspaper, "The NDFB rebels carried out Sunday’s massacre with prior notice. On Saturday, the militants had distributed pamphlets in the area, threatening to blow up Bhimajuli village but security forces failed in taking any note of it."

He said, "We are ready to help police in taking them to the hideouts of NDFB rebels if they have courage to face them." The villagers of the area who are rattling under extortion demand of the Bodo rebels also organised meetings on their own to resist the extortion demand of NDFB rebels but administration failed to protect them. Anguished over the role of security forces, the local traders said, "We are now compelled to doubt the role of police as they came for the patrolling in the area only after the NDFB rebels used to move out of their villages after holding meeting with villagers at gunpoint."

Hundreds of villagers are still testimony to the fact that NDFB rebels were moving openly with arms as "if it is a liberated zone of NDFB rebels". "We have been reporting all these incidents through memorandum, but the administration remained a mute spectator," said Saroj Murmur, a local trader, adding that the massacre was aimed at creating fear and forcing the villagers to give money to the outfit. The rebels have not left even petty banana traders. They are also forced to pay the extortion money up to Rs 1,000, said another villager.