Following fresh incidents of violence in the communally sensitive Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTC) areas, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday asked the civil and police administrations to deal with the situation firmly and to ensure no recurrence of such incidents.
Worried about their security in the strife-torn Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council in Assam, the religious minority community living in the area has demanded that they must not be subjected to 'harassment' anymore in the name of detection of illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
A group of prominent policy makers, scholars, activists and intellectuals have called to 'Reduce rhetoric, spread goodwill, not ill-will' in Assam in the wake of the violence that rocked Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council and adjoining areas in later part of July that drove lakhs out of their homes and left about 98 persons dead from Bodo and Muslim communities.
The 12-hour Assam bandh called by the All Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU) on Tuesday turned violent with government officials and mediapersons attacked leading to imposition of indefinite curfew in some areas.
The term 'love jihad' is used by right-wing groups to allege a ploy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women into religious conversion through marriage.
The opposition Asom Gana Parishad on Friday organised a massive rally of its supporters and people in Guwahati to register its protest against the 'failure' of the Assam government to stop occurrence of violence in Bodoland Territorial Council and adjoining areas as well as demanding deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants from the state.
The tripartite agreement was signed by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, top leadership of the four factions of the NDFB, ABSU, Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg and Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Spells of communal as well as ethnic violence, that have become the bane of life in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas of Assam, which have claimed 731 lives since 1993 in the area.
After imposing ban on calling bandh in the state by various organisations with immediate effect, Assam government has imposed ban on holding all kinds of procession, rallies etc in the State for one month in view of the sensitive situation prevailing in the state in the wake of communal violence in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council and adjoining areas.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its two Assam allies -- the Asom Gana Parishad and the United People's Party Liberal -- on Wednesday 'almost finalised' their seat-sharing pact for the Assam assembly polls and a formal announcement will be made in a day or two, sources said.
The recurrence of violence in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTC) area of Assam during the last few days despite heavy deployment of forces and continued imposition of night curfew has proved that the hatred between the two communities -- involved in the clashes that erupted on July 21 last -- has run deeper than realised by the political leadership.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday hinted at the involvement of a third force behind the raging ethnic violence in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTC) areas of Kokrajhar and Chirang.
The recent bouts of violence by suspected Bodo militias that killed over 30 hapless 'Muslims, mostly children and women, and rendered several thousands homeless in lower Assam recently, once again offers a shocking glimpse of the horrendous game of violent communalism being played by the Congress government of Assam in furtherance of its cynical power politics for the last several years.' 'The result is, the state is a simmering communal cauldron that sporadically erupts at the slightest real or imagined provocation,' says R N Ravi.
The winter session of the Assam assembly started on a stormy note on Monday over the issue of availability of illegal weapons in the communally sensitive Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas that was rocked by a spell of riots involving Bodo tribe and Muslim communities during July this year that left over 100 dead and rendered about 4 lakh homeless.
Three persons were injured, one of them seriously, when a crude bomb exploded at a village near Goreswar town in Baksa district under violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council in Assam on Sunday.
While the BPF and the UPPL are considered rivals in the Bodo-dominated areas, there was no pre-poll alliance among other parties as well.
'The violence that shook Assam was a direct outcome of the state's ethnic problem... The tension that created a rift between the Bodos and the non-Bodos for years found a blood-spattered expression.' Former NSG chief Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Kokrajhar, speaks to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com about last week's carnage in Assam.
'Had it not been for the complicity of the state and Biren Singh's leadership, these riots would not have spread this far and for so long.'
The joint operation group of the Unified Command structure reviewed security scenario in the four Bodoland Territorial Area Districts in view of the Bodoland Territorial Council polls scheduled on April 8, a defence spokesman said on Friday.
A militant belonging to the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland led by Sangbijit or NDFB(S) was lynched and another seriously injured by a mob at Singimari in western Assam's Goalpara district on Tuesday.
Bodoland People's Front leader and executive member of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council Mono Kumar Brahma was remanded to 14-day judicial custody by the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Kokrajhar on Monday. The BPF leader was later admitted to Rupnath Brahma Civil Hospital in Kokrajhar after he fell ill.
APCC president Ripun Bora said following discussions with various parties, it has been decided that the Congress will join hands with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist and the Anchalik Gana Morcha.
Keeping an eye on the upcoming assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Wednesday promised the people of Assam that if his party comes to power it will put an end to unabated infiltration in the state from Bangladesh.
Several Assamese-origin students studying in American universities met with Indian embassy officials to deliver a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee on the killing of over 32 Muslims in Assam as a result of election-related violence there. Aziz Haniffa reports
The Gauhati high court on Thursday granted bail to Pradeep Brahma, Bodo People's Front MLA of Kokrajhar (West) constituency in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council area, who was arrested on August 22 on charges of inciting the mob during the recent flare-up in the region
A bandh called by All Bodoland Minority Students' Union and eight other non-Bodo organisations in protests against killing of at least eight innocent non-Bodo persons by Bodo militant group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit) since Friday has night paralysed life in the violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam on Monday.
'The BJP's tie-ups with the Bodoland People's Front and the Asom Gana Parishad have incurred the wrath of local party leaders and workers ahead of next month's assembly elections.'
For reasons political as well as social, the Bodo tribe and the agrarian religious minority community have been living for decades in an atmosphere of mistrust under the jurisdiction of the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous district Council.
A bandh called by the All Bodoland Minority Students' Union and eight other non-Bodo organisations since Friday night has paralysed life in the violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam on Monday.
Suspected militants from the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit) killed more two persons and injured three others in two separate incidents of shootouts on Saturday in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam.
Noisy scenes prevailed in Assam assembly on Tuesday with opposition MLAs belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Asom Gana Parishad staging walk-out after the speaker rejected their demand for an adjournment motion to facilitate discussion on the deteriorating' law and order situation in Assam.
Normalcy is returning to the violence-affected districts of Baksa and Kokrajhar under Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts Council areas in Assam. The state government claims that there has been no incident in the last 48 hours as the security apparatus along with army is working relentlessly to restore peace.
Over 5,000 people lodged in relief camps in Kokrajhar district of Assam are being shifted to make-shift relief camps in their native villages or close to their native villages under the protection of 24x7 fixed security pickets.
Indefinite curfew has been enforced in troubled Baksa district of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas of Assam following the killing of a youth leader, Manoj Das, of Asom Sena by unidentified gunmen on Wednesday evening at Mushalpur area.
Bodo tribals influence as many as 30 seats. No wonder, national parties are keen to forge alliances with Bodo groups.
A bandh called by various organisations in protest against the killing of a 14-year-old girl Purnima Rajak in a bomb blast on Tuesday evening, paralysed life in Dibrugarh city as well as the entire district on Thursday.
Newly floated Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), led by former All Assam Students' Union leader Lurinjyoti Gogoi, on Thursday forged an alliance with the Raijor Dal of jailed anti-citizenship law activist Akhil Gogoi for the upcoming assembly elections.
The prime minister came down heavily on the Congress government in Assam and the previous UPA government at the Centre for "failing" to fulfil dreams and aspiration of the people.
A direct contest between nominees of the BJP-led NDA and Congress-headed Grand Alliance is on the cards in 20 constituencies
Apprehending trouble in the state especially in violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in the aftermath of declaration of results of election in the state on Friday, the Assam government has requested the army to be in stand by for quick deployment, if the need arises while helicopter surveillance is being continued in vulnerable areas of the violence-affected BTC areas and along India-Bhutan border.