Guwahati: A day after Bodoland People’s Front legislator Parmilla Rani Brahma claimed that minority voters of the Bodoland Territorial Council did not vote for them, at least 23 Muslims, mostly women and children, were massacred in three separate attacks by heavily-armed assailants in Kokrajhar and Baksa districts of Assam.
The state government has requisitioned the Army, that has been put on standby by the Centre to contain any flareup in Kokrajhar and its neighbouring districts. Top government sources said additional Central forces had been deployed in Kokrajhar and other districts. The Assam government has told the home ministry that the local Army commander has been asked to keep troops on alert and ready to deploy at short notice if the situation in Kokrajhar deteriorates, sources said.
Curfew in BTC area of Assam
Assam home secretary Gyanendra Tripathy said that the death toll in the Bodoland Territorial Council violence had gone up to 23, with the recovery of 12 more bodies from Baksha district on Friday evening. Earlier, 11 Muslims were reported killed in two attacks.
The state administration has clamped curfew in most of the vulnerable areas of the BTC, where incidents of arson and mob violence was reported from Narayanpur and some other pockets.
The violence that started Thursday night has triggered a mass exodus people from the Muslim villages.
Though the exact number of those who have fled their homes is not known, security sources said that a large number of people had started arriving in the neighbouring district of Dhubri. Earlier, Assam DGP Khagen Sarma said, “The Songbijit faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland rebels were involved in the killings.”
