Violence engulfs Assam - Religion of Peace (TM) involved
Story here.
Quote:
GUWAHATI/NEW DELHI: The death toll in the ongoing ethnic clash between Bodo and Bengali speaking Muslims in the Bodo heartland in Kokrajhar district since Friday, rose to 25 as additional central paramilitary forces from different parts of the country are on their way to the troubled area.
Over 50, 000 people belonging to both the communities have been affected in the spate of violence so far. The population of Bodos, the largest tribal group among the 23 notified scheduled tribes, is just over five per cent of the total population of the state while Muslims constitute nearly 33 per cent.
<...>Singh said that shoot-at-site order has also been issued.
State government spokesman and agriculture minister Nilamani Sen Deka, who is at Kokrajhar, said, "There are no reports of any escalation of violence except some incidents of burning of abandoned villages by miscreants."
Located at the western end of Assam and bordering West Bengal on its west and Bhutan on north, Kokrajhar district is the cauldron of simmering communal mistrust leading to hatred in Assam's western territory that is boiling again.
"All the clashes have the same characteristics. The mistrust is so high that just a small spark is enough to create an inferno," a top official Assam Police said. He added, "People are rendered homeless in every such clash, but we have seen that these people return to their land, even after 10 years of living in relief camps."
It was in 1952 when Bodos first clashed with Muslims. In 1993 and 1994 Bodos clashed again with Muslims after the Bodo Accord which gave autonomy to Bodos. The clash was termed as "ethnic cleansing" by the then state government.
More than 100 people were killed and at least 60,000 from both the communities were rendered homeless. As the accord of 1993 failed, Bodos resumed their struggle for identity and turned so fierce that Santhals were mercilessly killed in two back-to-back clashes in 1996 and 1998. Over 300 people were killed and more than three lakh people made homeless at the time. The last time Bodos clashed with Muslims was in 2008.
4 killed in police firing
The toll in continuing violence in western Assam reached 25 today with four persons killed in police firing in Kokrajhar district, where shoot-at-sight orders and indefinite curfew were in force.
"Four persons were killed in police firing this morning when they were indulging in violence in the Rampur and Chaparkata areas of Kokrajhar," IGP, Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD), S N Singh said.
Sporadic incidents of violence and arson were reported from Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts, while the situation was tense in neighbouring Bongaigaon and Udalguri districts. Bongaigaon and Udalguri districts fall under the BTAD.
Around 70 houses in four villages at Bijni in Chirang district were torched. Over 50,000 people are housed in relief camps.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi during the day and directed him to do everything possible to control the violence. The prime minister also promised Gogoi more central assistance.
If you have a porous border across which people owing allegiance to old Mo, possessing a 7th century Arabian mentality that is at complete odds with democracy and pluralism can sneak in + a political class that is spineless against Mohammedan terror, this is what will happen.
So, who is next? Choose your pick - Mohammedans vs ______________ in state ______________ with death toll _______________.
