Muslims under siege in Assam: Part 2
By Diganta Sharma for TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati: Fourteen labourers were abducted on August 14 from the road connecting Rowta with Udalguri district in Assam. Four of them successfully overpowered some abductors and freed themselves from their clutches.
Nurjaman, one among the fortunate four, is a resident of Khuti village under Dalgaon police station. He related the story.
“Early morning on August 14th we went in a truck to Simul Basti in Udalguri. There the contractor asked us to fetch a truck full of stone (We do loading and unloading of stone in public carriers and earn our livelihood). My uncle, too, was with us that day. Fourteen of us took our way back on the same truck. We passed Kahibari and reached Diopam where 10-12 people stopped the truck and started brutally beating all the people including the truck driver. Then we were forced to get into a tracker car and they brought us to a remote village,” said Nurjaman.
Baker ali, Nurjamal, and Nur Islam were able to save themselves
“Then the abductors sent for the village youths and ordered them to kill or slaughter us as they identified we were Muslims. They started beating us with bamboo. Then I managed to run away from the spot. Six other victims followed my way and ran. After running a few hours we came to the river. We swam to the other side. Two among us did not know how to swim. So, one of them climbed a tree to save the life, other ran aimlessly. The Bodo youths continued chasing us. Seeing them at a long distance three of us changed tracks. We two took the same way, but a little later the other fellow got himself lost and I got a wide pitch road. A little later, an Indian army truck was passing by and I shouted and urged them to stop. I told the army jawans the entire story. They put me in their truck to the Rowta police station,” he related.
The same story was also narrated by Bakar Ali who escaped from the abductors.
“I could escape from their hand but later on another group of Bodo youths caught hold of me. They had lathis and daos and were ready to slaughter me. But before doing that they gave me a chance to run away. Taking the chance I ran from the spot to the nearest forest area. And I took shelter in the forest for the night and next day went to the police station at Udalguri.”
Nur Islam and Jakir Ali, other two victims, had to face the same tragedy and reached home early morning on August 15.
Bodo militants
Now the most important part of the story is that the four who could save themselves from the fanatics related the story to the police. The police, however, did not investigate the incident and did not take any action to save the lives of those still in the custody of the Bodo abductors.
The victims who have not returned till now are: Matlib Ali (35), Babul Ali (45), Idrish Ali (40), Rahmat Ali (18), Makbul Ali (20), Hashim Ali (35), Kuddush Ali (25), Ajit Ali (36), Maha Alam (22), Saiful Islam (26). All of them are from Dalgaon village.
Moreover, Osman Ali from Kharupetia, Mafijuddin from Doipam, Abul Kashem from Shyampur, Mahidul Rahman (25), Alal uddin (40)and Rahamat Ullah (35) from Aminpara and Abul Husain (40) from Jhargaon could not be found.
On the other hand, the bodies of Abdul Salah (30) of Aminpara, Haidor Ali (28), Fakir Ali (22) and Taker Ali (36) have been recovered.
It is certain that all these labourers were abducted and killed by Bodo people just because they were Muslims.
This is second part of the TwoCircles.net special series on Assam anti-Muslim violence. http://www.twocircles.net/special_reports/muslims_under_siege_assam.html