Day after, fear stalks Kokrajhar

Five-year-old Joy Mondol shrieks as he lies on a bed in Kokrajhar’s civil hospital.

Five-year-old Joy Mondol shrieks as he lies on a bed in Kokrajhar’s civil hospital. He was walking down the vegetable market with his grandmother when the second blast took place. His grandmother, Arati Debnath, is one of the 21 persons who died in the serial blasts here. Joy has multiple injuries all over his body. “How will I explain to him what has happened,” said his father, Bankalal Mondol, who works as a mechanic in Sikkim and had come home to celebrate Kalipuja.

The district has almost come to a halt, but for visits by politicians. The marketplace wears a deserted look. The idol in the local Kalipuja pandal is intact, but there’s no one to immerse the idol. Bits of clothes and shoes lie around the blast sites. The police have cordoned off the crater that marks the site of one of the blasts.

“I heard a loud noise and went out of my shop. There was chaos and one could hear only cries of the injured,” said Jayanta Pal, who stays near the marketplace where the blast took place.

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Sampad Ali, the only earning member of his family, has lost his makeshift shop. “I was busy attending customers when I heard a loud noise and saw a flash of light and dust. Something hit me and I fell unconscious,” said Sampad, who is among the 29 injured being treated at the local hospital.

When Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil visited the district, he was greeted by a small but angry mob. “At this moment, I cannot say whether jehadis are involved or not. I will see to it that the guilty are punished,” he assured.

Apart from meeting the injured in the hospital and inspecting the blast sites, Patil held a meeting with Bodoland Territorial Council members, who submitted a memorandum to him.

Hagrama Mohilary, chief of the Council, said, “We have requested the Home Minister to provide us a relief package of Rs 50 crore. We have also asked him to deploy additional security forces, besides demanding a high-level inquiry into the incident.”

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