On September 23, clashes broke out in the Sipajhar revenue circle in Assam’s Darrang district between police and alleged encroachers against the government’s ongoing drive to remove ‘illegal encroachers”.
Death of two civilians were reported, including a 12-year-old boy while many more were suffered from injury.
In a video that went viral on social media, a policeman was mercilessly seen shooting a protestor and his lifeless body was repeatedly jumped upon and kicked by a government photographer.
The drive started on 20th September which followed the eviction of 800 families in Dholpur 1 and Dholpur 3 villages in Sipajhar under the Assam government’s Garukhuti Project.
The cops removed the residents who were allegedly occupying 4,500 bighas of land although the inhabitants complained that they had lived in the area for decades and accused the government of evicting them without having a proper rehabilitation plan.
Sattar Ali, a small-time businessman, questioning the eviction drive has said,
“Instead of forcing us to leave our houses at such short notice and resorting to violence, the government should have first allotted us some alternate land where we could have shifted. What was the hurry to remove us from a place that we have called home for decades?”
On the other hand, the government blamed the alleged encroacher for attacking the policemen. A senior police officer who was present at the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that initially most of the residents had agreed to move to the allotted land without any resistance. Later, they came under the influence of some outside elements crooked the drive towards an ugly turn.
A large mob present at the eviction site suddenly started attacking the policemen with sticks and stones. He also mentioned that there was a discussion with the families who were supposed to be evicted and alternate measures were assured to them. Yet, hundreds of people evictors rushed at the policemen with sticks and machetes.
The policemen had to fire tear gas shells and rubber bullets to their defense and when it didn’t stop the mob attackers, they had to start shooting to protect themselves.
Addressing the horrific incident that had taken place on 23rd September which led to a national outrage, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma alleged there was the active involvement of Popular Font of India (PFI) in the anti-encroachment in Sipajhar, Darrang.
A large number of people clashed with the police at the site of the eviction drive whereas only 60 families were supposed to be evicted. CM Sarma said,
“Before the day of the incident, PFI visited the site in the name of carrying food items to evicted families. The eviction was done against 60 families. From where did these 10,000 families arise? Various pieces of evidence are now emerging, implicating certain people.”
Author
Swagata Chakraborty
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