Bodo militants kill 22 Santhals

Suspected National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants gunned down as many as 14 persons including five women, all Santhal adivasis in Gossaigaon sub-division of the district.

The attack on the Santhals was a well-planned one with NDFB militants armed with AK-47 and other lethal weapons swooping upon Santhal-inhabited villages almost simultaneously at around 9:30 am today, leaving at least 14 dead.

The condition of 20 others is stated to be serious with the police shifting them to the government hospitals at Gossaigaon and Kokrajhar.

A number of housesbelonging to the Santhal adivasis were also torched simultaneously, forcing the villagers to flee to safety to Gossaigaon and Soraibeel, the nearest police stations.

Additional companies of the CRPF have been rushed to the area lying north of the national highway in the western-most sub-division of Assam flanked by West Bengal and Bhutan on the west and north respectively.

Speaking to The Indian Express, the western Assam deputy inspector general of police B B Mishra, who is camping at Gossaigaon, said the suspected militants struck with precision in the outlying areas of Soraibeel and Sapkata which have been rendered unapproachable with ease due to the on-going floods, and gunned down the unarmed Santhals before running away.

He also related the killings to the series of developments which have taken place in the sensitive sub-division during the past few days, beginning with the abduction of Satyen Soren, general secretary of the adivasi Sewa Samiti on September 6 from Gossaigaon. Soren waslater killed.

This had resulted in retaliatory attack by the Bodos three days later leading to the torching of 194 houses belonging to the Santhals in the sub-division. Several incidents of arson and torching of houses on either side during the past days, prompting both Bodo and Santhal villagers to flee and take refuge in the Gossaigaon town.

DIG Mishra said that while till yesterday the clashes chiefly involved the Santhal and Bodo villagers, it was only today that the outlawed NDFB jumped into action, taking advantage of the inaccessibility of the area.

“The situation is tense, and more incidents cannot be immediately ruled out as it is physically impossible to guard the entire population living on the north of the highway up to the Bhutan border,” Mishra said.

The police have so far picked up two youths suspected to be involved in today’s killings, while a combing operation has been launched around noon after the first report reached the sub-divisional police officer’s (SDPO) head-quarter atGossaigaon.