Now Adivasis target Bodos in Kokrajhar

Now Adivasis target Bodos in Kokrajhar
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

GUWAHATI, MARCH 8: Suspected Adivasi Cobra Force militatns gunned down six Bodo tribals in Assam's Kokrajhar district on Tuesday, resuming clashes between the two ethnic groups after a gap of four years.

A delayed report said the six Bodos were labourers working for a truck, and were gunned down at village Borghopa under Gossaigaon police station close to the Assam-West Bengal border. The labourers had gone to the Sonkosh river to collect sand when a group of armed militants appeared on the spot from the nearby forests and shot them at close range.

The shooting is believed to have been carried out in retaliation for the killing of three Adivasi settlers by suspected Bodo militants at village Sapkata five days earlier.

Adivasi settlers and the Bodo tribals have been fighting each other for several years now, with the violence peaking around May 1996 when large-scale riots broke out in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts between the two groups. Bodos saythe Adivasis -- migrants from the Chhotanagpur region -- had encroached upon their territory leading to economic and ecological problems. A large number of adivasis and Bodos are still living in relief camps in Kokrajhar district after they were rendered homeless during the May 1996 riots.