Assam’s Kokrajhar, Udalguri District Hit by Violence: Bodos and Muslims Clashed

Assam’s Kokrajhar district remained a recipient of violence since 20 July 2012. Nineteen people have been killed so far in sporadic incidents of violence which resulted into a clamp night curfew on 21 July 2012.

The whole incident started on 6 July 2012 when the violence got triggered with the firing on two student leaders , Mohibul Islam of All Bodoland Minority Students' Union (ABMSU) and Abdul Siddique Sheikh of All Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU) by unidentified gunmen at Anthihara in Kokrajhar.

The Violence continued as, on 20 July 2012, four activists of former militant outfit Bodo Liberation Tigers were shot dead by unidentified persons in Joypur. In reply to the act, armed Bodos attacked Muslims, suspecting them to be behind the killings and soon communal violence spread across the district. The violence took to a rather serious level by 23 July 2012 with the protesters stopping the Guwahati-New Delhi Rajdhani Express.

In Kokrajhar, the Udalguri district administration has taken up precautionary measures to control any kind of violence and maintain peace and harmony among people in the district. Also, Section 144 of CrPC has been imposed in the district, more over the Army and para-military forces have also been alerted.

This is not the first time, that Assam is subjugated to communal violence, In October 2008, ethnic clashes between Bodos and Muslims killed forty nine and left one point five lakh homeless.