42 years on, Assam Cabinet to table Nellie massacre report in Assembly
The massacre of February 18, 1983, was the most violent flashpoint of the Assam Agitation against illegal migration from Bangladesh, taking place over several hours
Following a Cabinet meeting held Thursday, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that it decided to table the report in the legislative assembly on November 25.
Forty-two years after the Nellie massacre took place and 41 years after the report of the Tiwari Commission that was constituted to probe it was submitted, the Assam Cabinet Thursday took a decision to table it in the legislative assembly next month.
The Nellie massacre of February 18, 1983, was the most violent flashpoint of the Assam Agitation against illegal migration from Bangladesh, taking place over several hours. The official death toll was 1,800 – mostly Bengali-origin Muslims – but the unofficial figure is 3,000. While 668 FIRs were registered in relation to the violence in a period of two months following it, nobody was arrested.
The then Congress state government led by Hiteshwar Saikia had appointed a commission chaired by retired IAS officer Tribhuvan Prasad Tewary on July 14, 1983. It was mandated to “look into the circumstances leading to the disturbances which took place in Assam during January to April 1983, to examine the measures taken by the concerned authorities to anticipate, prevent and deal with these disturbances, to indicate whether there were any failures by any authority or individual, and to suggest measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future”.
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