Fresh violence in Assam district claims two lives

At least two persons died in a fresh violence that erupted on Saturday in Assam's Kokrajhar district. The victims have been identified as a Muslim and a Bodo.

The incident occurred on a day Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi claimed that over 4.46 lakh people displaced in the July violence had returned to their respective villages.

Gogoi, meanwhile, on Sunday directed the civil and police authorities in the districts under the Bodoland Territorial Council to step up security measures and ensure that no further incidents occurred. An official press note issued by the Chief Minister's Office on Sunday quoted the deputy commissioner and SP of Chirang district and said the situation there was tense, but under control.

Two separate incidents in which one person each was killed on Saturday occurred in Kokrajhar with official sources saying the victims were identified as Ainul Haque (30) and Rabindra Boro (37). While Haque, a farmer, was gunned down from close range while he was harvesting paddy in No. 2 Bajugaon under Gossaigaon police station, Boro, a member of the Village Council Development Committee of Anthaibari uner Kokrajhar police station, was hacked to death. In both the incidents the police have not been able to identify the culprits.

Sources in Kokrajhar said Ainul Haque had only a couple of weeks back shifted to a temporary relief camp at Hauriapet village after having put up in a larger relief camp for more than three months.

Gogoi had on on Saturday claimed that the situation in Kokrajhar and Chirang districts had returned to normal, pointing out that the return of over 4.46 lakh persons displaced in the July violence to their respective villages itself proved this.

While more than 4.85 lakh people, including Muslims of migrant origin, Bodos and others had taken shelter during the peak of the violence that broke out in the last week of July, the number of persons in relief camps stood at 39,459 on Sunday.

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