Guwahati, May 29 (IANS) A minority Bodoland student’s panel Wednesday demanded a high level probe into the 2012 riots in Assam, saying they do not trust the ongoing investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The clashes that broke out in July 2012, between the Bengali-speaking Muslim settlers and Bodo people led to the killing of over 100 people and displaced over five lakh others in three districts of the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD).
The CBI, which took over the investigations of the riots, later chargesheeted 37 people in connection with the killing of four youths on July 20 at Joypur in Kokrajhar that triggered the violence.
“We have serious doubts in the credibility of CBI as it has been proved that they work in the favour of the ruling government in the recent past,” said the All Bodoland Minority Students’ Union (ABMSU) president Sahabuddin Ali Ahmed.
“Their report seems to be not neutral and we demand another high level inquiry to be instituted to nab the real culprits,” said Ahmed.
On Tuesday, the ABMSU also took out a huge a rally in Guwahati and handed over a memorandum to Assam Governor J.B. Patnaik seeking immediate measures to rehabilitate about 6,000 riot hit families and are living in a deplorable condition in various relief camps.
The students’ panel also alleged that the ruling government along with the BTAD authority has conspired to evict away all the people belonging to the minority community even though they have been staying there for a long time.
“The group of ministers along with the BTAD administration has hatched a new conspiracy to drive away the Muslim peasants living in the area for last many decades,” he said.
“According to the latest joint resolution of them, these peasants will be provided Rs.50,000 if they sign a bond that they will leave their land. And the helpless poverty-stricken peasants are signing this bond,” he said.
In Gosaigaon sub-division there are some 3,000 such families and in Kokrajhar sub-division there 4,000 such families, he pointed out.
“Once they sign the bond, they will have to leave the BTAD as they will have no right to buy land there,” he said adding that it was decided in a meeting between Group of Ministers (GoM) and Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) chief Hagrama Mohilary,” he said.
The students’ panel further said that they would continue the agitation if the state government does not pay heed to the demand.
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