There was tension at Moilapathar in Goalpara district of lower Assam on
Monday following a clash between people and police personnel.
Three persons were killed and 15 injured in police firing and mob
violence in lower Assam’s Goalpara district on Monday. Following this,
indefinite curfew was clamped and the Army called out in the Forest Gate
and Moilapathar areas under the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC).
Assam Home Secretary G.D. Tripathi told The Hindu that seven
persons were injured in police firing. Eight police personnel suffered
wounds in the mob attack on government and police vehicles.Additional
Deputy Commissioner Utpal Sharma said the trouble began on Monday
morning following the recovery of the body of Taher Ali, a resident of
Moilapathar village, from Rakhasini hills, a reserve forest. Ali went
missing on Sunday afternoon after he went into the forest near a village
inhabited by the Rabha tribe. His body was found buried inside the
forest on Monday morning.
When the police, accompanied by the Magistrate, went to shift the body
for post-mortem, a mob prevented them and attacked the officials’
vehicles. As stones continued to be pelted at policemen injuring them,
they opened fire. Two persons — Sahidul Islam and Gulzar Ali — were
killed in the firing and seven received bullet injuries. The ADC said
the mob set on fire a person who was passing by the troubled area on a
bike. The victim could not be identified immediately as the body was
charred.
In February, 20 people lost their lives — 13 in police firing and seven
in ethnic clashes between Rabha and non-Rabha groups in Rabha Hasong
Autonomous Council (RHAC) areas of Goalpara district. The violence broke
out after mobs comprising the Rabha people attacked polling centres and
personnel to obstruct panchayat polls in the council areas. Subsequent
clashes between the Rabha and non-Rabha groups triggered exodus of
people from the affected villages. As many as 18,896 people took shelter
in 22 relief camps. A total of 4,460 affected people are still in 14
relief camps.
The RHAC was constituted in 1995 — along with two other autonomous
councils, the Mising and the Tiwa Autonomous Councils — by the Congress
government led by Hiteswar Saikia. However, the elections to the RHAC
have not been held till date and for the past 18 years the Council is
run by an ad hoc body appointed by the State government.
