Assam Police open fire on protestors, 2 feared dead

Two persons protesting against the demolition of their homes in Gorukhuti in Sipajhar district of Assam, are believed to have been killed in police firing today.

Local activists claimed that the protestors were unarmed.

Disturbing videos attributed to the police firing on an unarmed individual who came to challenge the police, is doing the rounds on social media. Even as the man fell to the police bullets, the several police personnel showered lathis on him and a photojournalist repeatedly trampled on the lifeless body.

Meanwhile, Assam Congress President Bhupen Kumar Borah has strongly condemned the ‘barbaric act’ of police firing on resident protesters of Dholpur area in Sipajhar during eviction drive of Assam Government.

In a press statement, Borah described the eviction as inhuman specially during Covid situation.  He added that the Supreme Court had also given a directive against eviction during pandemic situation yet the Assam Government led by Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma has remained adamant behaving in an autocratic manner to evict the residents of Dholpur who have been living in the area since the 1970's.

“Before eviction Government should have arranged for rehabilitation and alternative housing. The people in the area have been subjected to harassment repeatedly by the BJP Government since they came to power in 2016. Without alternative arrangements for land and housing where will these poor people go and how will they survive? They are mostly cultivators and their source of sustenance is being attacked” Borah stated.

He has demanded that CM should first rehabilitate the people and not evict them forcefully.