ULFA strikes again, 7 more killed as toll climbs to 55

In Longsowal, 20 km from Tinsukia, the anger is rising. People are yet to cremate the bodies. “We want leaders from Bihar to come and see what has happened to us,” said Virendra Gupta, who survived because he had gone to Tinsukia on some work.

Jaiswal had to face the ire of the residents, most of them from Bihar, who earn their living by running petty shops for tea garden labourers. “The minister kept repeating that he would go and tell the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister. We do not want assurances. We want action, adequate compensation,” said Lalit who sells clothes, roaming villages on a bicycle. They have demanded Rs 10 lakh for each of the dead and Rs 3 lakh for the injured, and jobs for the affected families.

The bodies of the dead, all in wooden boxes covered with ice, are being guarded by the residents, waiting for a team of ministers from Bihar. “Yes, we want to block the road. We want to tell the world how insecure we are, despite staying next to the National Highway on which hundreds of army and police vehicles pass everyday,” said Lalit.

Longsowal is on NH 37, just 20 km from Tinsukia town and six km short of Doomdooma. There are two police stations on the highway on either side, roughly four to five km apart.

Army convoys move out almost everyday from the 2 Div Hqs at Dinjan to various places, including Arunachal Pradesh.

“If we are unsafe, imagine what would be the state of our people who live in remote chapories (winter river islands) on the Brahmaputra,” says Radheyshyam Prasad, another shopkeeper, who claims that the Longsowal cluster of Biharis go back to three generations. “We may be of Bihari origin, but we belong to this place. Our ancestors came during the days of the British,” said Jainarain, a shopkeeper. Rekha Kumari (8), daughter of Parsuram Prasad, who was shot in both legs and is now at the AMC Hospital in Dibrugarh, said the militants entered their house by breaking the bamboo door. “They barged in with guns and opened fire. I got shot on both legs and the abdomen,” she said.

Other Bihari clusters, like Ghoramara Chapori, are also soft targets. “It is far away, about 20 km from the nearest police station. You cannot reach that place without crossing several channels of the Brahmaputra,” says Tinsukia SP Prasanta Bhuyan.

As many as 13 persons, all from Bihar and engaged in cattle rearing in the river islands, were lined up by a group of militants clad in army fatigues and shot on Friday night. While the killing took place at around 9.30 pm on Friday, the police got the news only next morning.

The same was the case with the six who were killed at Badalpur Chapori under Dhemaji district on the northern side of the Brahmaputra across Dibrugarh town. The nearest police station is about 40 km away.

“The ULFA now simply fires to kill. Earlier, they used to trigger grenade blasts and IEDs,” said a senior army official at the 2 Div Hqs in Dinjan. “Villagers today refuse to shelter the ULFA because it is the public which has to go through all the trouble,” he said.

In New Delhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi appealed to the people of Assam to maintain peace. In a statement, she said all problems could be found through dialogue. Gandhi said she had instructed the state government to provide security to the people and adequate compensation to the families of the victims. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan also condemned the killings, saying it was an attempt to divide people.

Paswan has written to the Prime Minister asking him to ensure that the life and property of people from Bihar and those from outside Assam be protected and adequate security measures be taken to ensure that such incidents do not recur.