Police used helicopters to spot armed mobs attacking armed Muslims in troubled Assam on Tuesday, where clashes between
indigenous tribesmen and settlers have left 47 people dead and tens of thousands homeless.
Police said four people died from their wounds overnight. More than 85,000 people have lost their homes and are being
sheltered in government camps after the clashes broke out last week between mainly Hindu tribesmen and Muslim
Bangladeshi settlers in the oil and tea-rich state.
“At least 47 people had lost their lives so far,” said R.N. Mathur, Assam’s police chief. Muslims have responded with big violence as well, he said.
The clashes have reignited a long-simmering conflict as local Assam tribes, mainly Hindu but with some Christians, fear
being overrun by Muslim immigrants. More than 40 percent of Assam is now Muslim, mainly immigrant settlers.
The violence is some of the worst since 1983, when more than 2,000 people, mainly Bangladeshi immigrants, were killed in
clashes with tribal peoples in central Assam.
The current conflict was sparked by an increasingly strong student movement that has been campaigning against
immigrants, analysts say.
Police said fresh clashes were being reported from southern Assam where at least 25 rubber plantation workers were
attacked by Muslim settlers in Goalpara district.
Mathur said an additional 500 federal police had been deployed in the state where hundreds of security forces were
already trying to control the situation.
He said helicopters were being used to spot movement of mobs in remote areas.
“It is not possible to have static security posts in each and every village, so we have intensified patrolling in remote
areas,” said Himanta Biswa Sarma, a minister supervising security and relief measures.
These clashes are the latest bout of violence to hit India. In Orissa, clashes between Hindus and Christians over
conversions have killed at least 36 people.
In Assam, officials have blamed the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), a tribal separatist group, for being
behind the violence. Security forces have caught four NDFB militants with weapons in the violence-hit area.
The NDFB, a largely Christian group, has held to a ceasefire with New Delhi over the past few years and has denied the
charge. Tribal groups blame New Delhi for neglecting their welfare, ignoring development of the region and flooding the
area with outsiders.
Ringed by China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan, India’s northeast is home to more than 200 tribes and has been racked
by separatist revolts since India gained independence from Britain in 1947.
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New Delhi, October 6: Reacting sharply to Amar Singh raising questions over the death of Delhi Police Inspector Mohan
Chand Sharma, who was killed in an encounter in New Delhi, the slain Sharma’s family refuses to accept a cheque given by
the SP leader.
The Inspector’s father Narottam Sharma said he was sad at the comments made by Singh, who has given a cheque of Rs ten
lakh to the family after the officer’s death.
“We will not accept the cheque. He is talking rubbish,” the senior Sharma said.
Raising questions over the encounter in Jamia Nagar in which the Inspector and two suspected Indian Mujahideen
terrorists were killed, Singh has said Sharma was transferred from Special Cell before the encounter took place.
Singh, who offered a cheque to Sharma’s family, had also visited Jamia Nagar and demanded a judicial probe into the
encounter.
“My son was not transfered from Special Cell. Who told him? How can a responsible leader like him can say such things?”
Sharma asked.
Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat also said Sharma was not transfered from the Special Cell, the elite anti-terror
wing of Delhi Police.
Meanwhile, a group of people protested outside Singh’s residence at Lodhi Colony here and shouted slogans against the
Samajwadi Party leader for his comments on Sharma.
I Think Amar singh is big motherfucker.
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Getting a bogus ration card issued in the name of Maharashtra Chief Minister may not be a big deal if one is to go by
the claim made by a social activist, who says he has already done it.
Sanjay Dhutadmal, a member of Bahujan Vikas Adhadi at Nigdi near Pune, has handed over a ration card issued by the
authorities, to Pune Divisional Commissioner Nitin Karir, which shows the name of Chief Minister Vilasrao Dagduji
Deshmukh as the family head with a matching list of dependents – wife Vaishali, sons Amit, Ritesh and Banti.
The activist alleged he paid Rs 2,000 to the officials concerned to get the card issued last month without submitting
any required documents pertaining to residential proof.
Dhutadmal said he undertook the operation to expose corruption in the ration office after getting many complaints of
malpractices in issuing bogus cards.
The card, copies of which were distributed to the media on Wednesday, shows Deshmukh’s residential address as Sector No
25, Pradhikaran, Nigdi, district Pune.
Karir said an inquiry would be conducted into the alleged incident.
Voice of Bihar 