By Abdul Bari Masoud, MM News,
New Delhi: While condemning the brutal killing of Muslims by Bodo militants in Assam’s Kokrajhar and Baksa districts, Muslim groups on Saturday strongly demanded the dismissal of Assam government and the Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) as the both are responsible for bloodshed of innocents in the state.
Addressing a press conference here, Welfare Party of India said 32 people were killed and one hundred were missing and more than 50,000 people were taken so far to safe places since the Bodo militants armed with sophisticated firearms started attacking Muslim areas in order to take revenge for opposing Bodo candidate in the Kokrajhar seat. Jamaat e Islami Hind and Popular Front of India also said Muslims had been targeted for political reason as so-called Bodoland has only 27 percent Bodo population while Muslims are in majority there.
Demanding compensation to victims and action against culprits among others, Jamaat-e-Islami blamed state government for ‘deliberate negligence’. All India Secular Forum demanded demobilization of illegal arms and a sustained campaign against armed militants. Popular Front of India also blamed the state government’s culpability for the continued violence. It slammed the state government for not taking measures to disarm India’s most dangerous separatist militias. Welfare Party leaders want dismissal of Tarun Gagoi government and scrapping of Bodo Territorial Council agreement. Several top party leaders are going to visit the violence-hit Assam on Sunday.
Throwing light on the genesis of violence in Assam, president of Assam Sangkhyalaghu (minorities) Sangram Parishad Naziruddin Ahmed told Muslim Mirror, that ‘ non-Bodo population including Muslims have for long been demanding dissolution of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) because of frequent outbreak of violence on Muslims living in the area. He said it is unfortunate that the government has constituted BTC just to placate only 27 percent Bodos population while ignoring majority non-Bodos population in which Muslims are the largest group. The area has been witnessing violence and it has increased since the formation of BTC in 2003, but the government has continued to ignore it. Naziruddin said Bodos continued attacks on Muslims is the part of their ethnic cleansing plan as they want to carve out a separate Bodo land by increasing their population strength from 27 to 51 per cent. On the fresh violence, he said non-Bodo population protested against the election rigging as they wanted to register a complaint to the EC for canceling of the polling as many EVMs were found faulty. In the Kokrajhar seat all non-Bodos have decided to vote in favor of independent candidate Nabha Sarani who is ex-ULFA militant that irked the Bodos and they began attacking Muslim villages in revenge. Parishad leader said Assam CM Tarun Gogoi on record said that his government was incapable of seizing arms from Bodo militants. During elections, the Muslims were asked to vote certain candidate of owing allegiance to the militant group. Blaming Congress and communal forces for violence, he said the Centre needs to respond to the crisis immediately. Naziruddin also came down heavily on the Maulana Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF. He said when violence broke out in 2012; Maulana Ajmal and his sons went to Saudi Arbaia for performing Umara switching off their mobiles.
Zafarul Islam Khan said Muslims are being made scapegoat for opposing the Bodo People’s party which is part of the Gogoi government of the state. He said after Jammu and Kashmir, Muslims in Assam are in sizable numbers that account 33 percent of state’s total population. “It is a political conspiracy to weaken the Muslim community by way of dubbing them illegal Bangladeshi migrants in order to stop them to emerge as a political force in the state”, he said. The Welfare party also announced of sending president its Mujtaba Farooq and Secretary Dr. Tasleem Ahmed Rahmani to the violence-hit Assam to take stock of the situation. The party leaders will also meet Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi.
Meanwhile, OMA Salam General Secretary of the Front blamed the state government’s culpability for the continued violence in the state. “By this attack Militants are giving the message that they would go to any extent of violence to achieve their evil design”. He urged the Center and the Assam government to take immediate steps to permanently settle the issue of Migrants on legal grounds immediately disarm the antinational elements of BTAD and provide adequate security to the lives of Indian citizens.
All India Secular Forum said the people were killed for their voting choice. “What is happening in Assam should shame humanity and Indian democracy. Official figures of dead in Kokrajhar and Baksa Dist. (Assam) is 32. Citizens were fired upon and killed on 1st May and 2nd May for their voting choice,” said Irfan Engineer of the forum.
He also criticized the accusation by the militants and a section of media that all the victims were migrant Muslims. Such unwarranted accusation will only mislead general public and indirectly justify the sporadic killings.
Get United Muslim Community please for the sake of our present generation & our upcoming generation please unite.