Assam: Gogoi visits violence hit districts, death toll reaches 41

Bhangarpar: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday visited violence-hit Baksa and Kokrajhar districts and assured the people that his government would provide them security as five more bodies were recovered taking the toll to 41.

Official sources said Gogoi visited the victims in some of the relief camps, including Balapara. The people told him that the surrendered BLT militants were involved in the attack on them with the alleged help of Forest Guards, sources said. Although the state government has put the blame for the twin attack on the banned NDFB(S), the affected people claimed it was an act of revenge by Congress' alliance partner, Bodoland People's Front, as they had voted for a non-Bodo candidate during the Lok Sabha polls in the state last month, sources said.

The wailing victims also wanted the villages to be provided with licensed arms for their protection and demanded that their areas be separated from the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) administered by former BLT leaders who have now formed the Bodoland People's Front (BPF), sources said.

Meanwhile, the five bodies fished out on Thursday morning from Beki river that flows from Baksa district, are yet to be identified and includes that of a 10-year old girl bearing bullet injuries on her head. Three of the bodies were found in Barpeta district and two from neighbouring Baksa district.

"Officially, we have not identified the bodies yet but the families have identified them to be from the affected areas," Baksa DC Vinod Seshan said. "However, identification has to be done to ascertain whether these are the victims of the attack in Narayanguri and Hagrabari villages," Seshan told PTI.

A team of 40 NDRF personnel, which reached the spot on Tuesday, started their operation from Thursday morning to fish out more bodies from the Beki river. With the recovery of the bodies the violence toll has mounted to 41, sources said. With no fresh incident reported so far, the administration has relaxed the indefinite curfew in worst-hit Baksa district for eight hours from 8 am, in Kokrajhar district for seven hours from 10 am and the prohibitory order as a preventive measure in Chirang district for 13 hours from 5 am.

Suspected NDFB(S) militants had unleashed violence in the two districts of Baksa and Kokrajhar since May 1.