IRB men out of clash zone

Bandh today to protest Bokoliahat firing

Two of the women injured in the IRB firing at Bokoliahat Civil Hospital on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections Nagaon, Feb 12  The India Reserve Battalion personnel deployed at Bokoliahat in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district were today shifted out of the area to quell public anger over the killing of a teenaged girl in IRB firing on Monday. Two major political parties in the district — the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) and the CPM(L) — have separately called a 12-hour Karbi Anglong bandh from 5am tomorrow in protest against the killing of 17-year-old Parboti Terangpi.  District superintendent of police K.K. Sarma said the IRB personnel would be replaced by the CRPF. He said the shifting had become necessary given the anger of the people towards the security force. “The seven-member IRB team will be sent to some other place far away from Bokoliahat,” he added. Yesterday, a large number of people demonstrated and pelted stones at Bokoliahat police station in protest against the “unprovoked firing”. Two policemen were injured in the mob rage. IRB havildar Nuruddin Ahmed had opened fire on a group of villagers from Phanglokpet on Monday evening when they went to the temporary IRB camp in the village to lodge a complaint against some IRB personnel who beat up some local youths during a religious function. Parboti was killed in the firing and five others, including four girls, were injured.  The havildar’s arrest on Monday failed to calm down the villagers, forcing the district administration to remove the camp from the area.  The village, however, continued to churn in anger as Parboti was cremated at the village public cremation ground. Hundreds, including teachers and students of Phanglokpet High English School where she was a student Class X, were present.  The ASDC and CPM(L) today threatened to launch a “mass agitation” if the victims’ families did not get justice as promised by the local administration and if the harassment of innocent civilians by the security forces was not stopped immediately.  IRB commander Prasanta Sagar Changmai, who rushed to the district yesterday, completed his field investigation and left today. He will submit his report to additional DGP (training and armed police) Sibabrata Kakoti.  A high-level team of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, led by its chief executive member Jayram Engleng, visited Phanglokpet this evening.  Karbi Human Rights Watch today said it would soon publish a paper listing the incidents in which innocent villagers of the district were victimised by security forces. “These types of incidents will not be tolerated any more. Soon, we will go into a huddle to devise our strategy to prevent such harassment,” the convener of the watch group, Pankaj Teron, said.