GUWAHATI/DIPHU: Violence erupted in Assam today in support of a separate Karbi Anglong state in which houses of a Congress MP and MLA were attacked, prompting the police to fire in the air to quell them.
Demanding that a separate state be carved out of Assam along the lines of Telangana, the agitators belonging to several organizations gheraoed the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council in Diphu and locked its main gate, official sources said.
They threw stones at the houses of Congress MP Birensing Ingti, MLA Bidyasing Engleng, Council’s chief executive member Joyram Engleng and its executive member Tuliram Ronghang and damaged their property.
The agitators, who belonged to Karbi Students Association, Karbi Riso Adorba and other organizations, even broke the gate of Engleng’s residence and damaged the cars parked in the compound, the sources said.
This prompted the police to fire several rounds in the air near the house but no injury to any person was reported.
At Ronghang’s residence, tractors and cars parked there were set ablaze by the agitators, the sources said.
The leaders of the various organizations said the demand was made as far back as in 1951 and have threatened to continue their stir if no action was immediately taken by the Centre. The Telengana issue also led to demands for separate Bodoland and Kamatapur states.
Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) chief and Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) president Hagrama Mohilary said BPF would organize a mass rally in Kokrajhar on August 4 to put pressure on the government on Bodoland.
He said BTC at its recent executive council meeting had demanded talks for creation of Bodoland on the same level as for Telangana. Besides it had on February 17, 2010 passed a resolution for creation of a separate state and forwarded it to the Assam government.
Mohilary, whose BPF is a coalition partner with the ruling Congress in the state, said BTC was created after an agreement between the now disbanded Bodoland Liberation Tiger (BLT), Assam and central governments under the 6th Schedule in 2003 as then there was no policy for creation of separate states.
But now as UPA at the Centre has a policy for creating separate states, the Bodoland demand should also be tabled in Parliament along the lines of Telangana and all their organizations were united on the issue, he said.
BTC, Mohilary claimed, had a demarcated boundary, an assembly, secretariat and own infrastructure and there would be no problem in upgrading it to a state. Meanwhile, All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) has announced a series of agitational programs from tomorrow in protest against the Centre’s alleged discrimination against Bodos and its failure to fulfill the genuine aspirations of the indigenous people.
It has called a 12-hour railway blockade on August 2 followed by a 60-hour Assam bandh from 5 am on August 5 and a 1,000-hour economic blockade if the situation compels, its president Promode Boro said.
ABSU and the Peoples Joint Action Committee for Bodoland Movement (a conglomerate of 55 organizations) have been raising the statehood demand for many years.
All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union (Biswajit Roy faction) has called a 36-hour Assam from 5 am tomorrow to press for a separate Kamtapur state carved out of Assam and West Bengal.
If the demand was not conceded, the union has threatened a fast-unto-death after August 15. -PTI
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