Guwahati: More than 500 Bengali-speaking Muslim families have fled their homes in the Bodoland Territorial Council and are taking shelter in neighbouring Barpeta and Dhubri after the massacre of 32 Muslims by heavily armed rebels in three separate attacks in Kokrajhar and Baksa districts since Thursday.
Though there was no fresh incident of violence, the police on Sunday arrested a forest ranger and eight forest guards who were alleged to have accompanied the armed assailants during the attack on Narayanguri and Narsingpara villages, where at least 19 Muslim villagers were killed.
Many still missing in restive BTAD
Villagers claimed that they saw the arrested forest ranger and guards interacting with the armed assailants, who massacred 32 Muslims in Kokrajhar and Baksa districts, and guiding them to their villages through Manas National Park. The police said that among those arrested, three forest guards are ex-cadres of the disbanded Bodo Liberation Tigers.
The arrest of ex-BLT cadres has added to the suspicion of Muslim leaders that Bodoland People’s Front leaders were involved in the conspiracy.
Assam home secretary Gyanendra Tripathy told Deccan Chronicle that in the last 48 hours, there was no fresh incident of violence.
“We have also persuaded the villagers of Narayanguri to bury 18 victims’ bodies,” he said, adding that the burial of bodies started on Sunday after senior ministers of the government visited them.
Assam Cooperation and Border Areas development minister Siddique Ahmed visited the affected areas in BTAD and met family members of the victims, all of whom belong to the minority community.
Ahmed said that the government was determined to punish the guilty and would take all steps to protect the lives of the minority community in the state. The minister then appealed to the people to perform the janaza (last rites) of the dead.
Accepting his request, the last rites of the 18 people took place in the afternoon in Baksa district.
Meanwhile, two more decomposed bodies of women were recovered from Beki river in neighbouring Barpeta district. They were residents of Anandbazar police station area where a massacre took place on Thursday. “There was no injury marks on the bodies,” the police said.
The villagers claimed that at least 25 more residents of the area are missing, of whom few came back on Sunday.
The state administration has asked the district authorities to set up relief camps to accommodate those villagers who fled their homes out of fear.
Additional DGP (Assam police) A.P. Raut said, “Eight people have been arrested in Kokrajhar and 14 in Baksa district.”
