Assam toll rises to 40, one lakh flee to relief camps

Although there was no fresh violence on Monday, there was a palpable sense of fear among thousands of people staying in the relief camps, with villagers saying they had lost faith in the police.

“Our villages have been attacked in the presence of the police. Three persons were hacked to death within 200 metres of a police picket,” said Dilip Kumar Boro at the Udalguri College relief camp where over 7,500 persons, including about 2,000 children, have taken refuge.

At Bhakatpara, at least 60 houses, all belonging to Bodo tribals, were set on fire within 500 metres of a CRPF camp. “The police remained silent spectators as our houses were burnt and people were attacked by sharp weapons,” said Madhuram Mushahary of Punia village, one among 2,800 persons lodged in the Bhakatpara Boys High School camp.

However, there is little ‘relief’ to be had at the camps. “We have been running this camp of 7,500 persons since Saturday purely on donations and with support from the locals, Lions Club and NGOs. A few quintals of rice arrived only today,” said Binoy Kumar Brahma, a school teacher who is heading the relief camp management at the college campus. There is also no electricity and drinking water. “The women are facing the worst problems due to absence of latrines and bathing facilities,” he added.

The situation is not much better at the relief camp in the high school campus here, where 2,193 persons, including 1,400 women and children, have been lodged. “We have nowhere to return to. Our entire village has been reduced to ashes,” said Bimoli Brahma, a mother of three from Ikrabari village, about 6 km from here.

Adding to the problem is the acute shortage of officers to run the administration in Udalguri, a newly created district that has endured the worst of the ongoing violence.