Vehicles attacked, shops forcibly closed down during Assam bandh, four injured

Guwahati, November 3, 2018:

Protestors attacked a number of vehicles, forced the closure of shops and squatted on railway tracks to block train movement during the 12-hour “Assam bandh” which was called by All Assam Bengali Youth Students’ Federation on Saturday in protest against Thursday’s killings of five people, all belonging to the Bengali community, at a village in Upper Assam’s Saikhowa.

The bandh had mixed response. It was total in Bengali-majority towns and areas. However, business was as usual elsewhere, especially in Upper Assam. The bandh had no effect in Assam capital Guwahati but it was total in the Barak Valley. In some places, people, opposed to the bandh, forced the shops to keep open. They were earlier forcibly closed down by the bandh supporters.

Dozens of protestors were detained by the police across the state. Two of them were Karimganj MP, Radheshyam Biswas, and Congress MLA, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha. Later, all of them were released.

At least four persons, including three women, were injured in the attacks by the protestors.

A woman was injured when a Volvo bus of the Assam State Transport Corporation, travelling from Tezpur to Guwahati, came under attack at Amoni. The bandh supporters attacked the vehicle with stones and bricks, breaking its window glass panes. Two other women were injured in a similar attack at Samaguri. The injured were travelling by a bus from Tinsukia to Guwahati.

In Tamarhat in Dhubri district, a carpenter was beaten up by the bandh supporters on finding him working on the day of the bandh.

A number of trucks and buses were attacked in Lower Assam too. In Barpeta, the bandh supporters attacked a bus, carrying a marriage party, with stones. In Kokrajhar, a bus, carrying a football team, came under attack from a stone-pelting mob. Some players reportedly sustained minor injuries.

In Lumding, the bandh supporters squatted on railways tracks disrupting train services briefly. They were soon dispersed by the police and CRPF personnel.

Meanwhile, there were reports that a delegation of MPs and MLAs of Trinamool Congress from West Bengal will visit the village of Thursday’s carnage on Sunday.