Bodos massacre 17 in Assam

Twenty-five-year-old Prabin Kalita had gone to the paddy fields nearby to join his friends for the Bhogali Bihu community feast last night, when he heard gunshots piercing through the foggy night.

By the time Prabin and his friends came back to the village, the killers had left.

Five members of Prabin’s family are dead, including his father Gunaram Kalita (70), his mother Kunja (65), sisters Geeta (20) and Babita (18) and brother Pramod (16).

Hemkanta Kalita, who works in the Assam Cooperative Polyester Mills at Tulasibari, five km from Kekerikuchi, lost his wife Pratibha (35), mother Jayanti (70), brother Dwipen (22), sister Lipika (18), daughter Hiron (7), son Babu (5) and niece Geetanjali (17).

The militants then gunned down Gajen Bhuyan (29), also an employee of the polyester mill, his mother Pheleni (60) and wife Bina (23). While leaving the place under the cover of darkness, the killers shot dead Dharmeswar Kalita (18) and Maheswar Haloi (15), students who were on their way to the community feast."This looks to be the handiwork of the outlawed Bodoland Liberation Tiger Force," said a senior police officer.

DGP Assam Police K Hrishikeshan, however, said it was too early to say which Bodo group did it."Bhogali Bihu is the main festival for cultivators like us. The harvest was good this year, but everything has been shattered. We are doomed. Bhogali Bihu has become a Bihu of death," said Haren Kalita, a neighbour of Prabin Kalita.This is the first time that suspected Bodo militants have attacked an Assamese-speaking village in such a big way. The area is prone to violence, with Bodo ultras killing about 50 persons, mostly Bengali-speaking migrants under Tamulpur police station, sometime back. In Guwahati, Chief Minister Mahanta and Governor Sinha condemned the incident.

"A handful of people having guns in their hand cannot hold the people to ransom for long. The long arm of the law will definitely bring the culprits to book," Sinha, who was inaugurating a tourism festival in the city said.