Migrants begin to flee as fear grips Assam

With the ULFA targeting Bihari migrants 8212; some 60 people have been killed and over 40 injured in the attacks since last Friday...

With the ULFA targeting Bihari migrants 8212; some 60 people have been killed and over 40 injured in the attacks since last Friday 8212; panic has gripped the twin industrial districts of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh and the migrants, many of them daily wage earners and brick kiln workers, have begun fleeing their homes. Several hundred migrants have already boarded trains for Bihar, still many more are crowding the stations, waiting for the first train out.

8220;We do not wish to stay here any longer. There is news of killings from all over. We are scared. Our employers are also worried,8221; said Shankar Rai, a 60-year-old from Gopalganj in Bihar who used to work at a brick kiln near Tinsukia but has now taken shelter with 154 others at a primary school next to the National Highway.

Shankar and the others are all contract workers. 8220;Our contract says we will get Rs 240 for every thousand bricks we make,8221; said Girdhari Shah of Kamta village in Chapra. They were heading to the railway station when the local police station officer-in-charge told the brickfield owner Ramchandra Das, an Assamese, to take them to the school being guarded by the police.

8220;I cannot risk their lives. The police can8217;t protect them at my brickfield,8221; said Das. He had planned business worth Rs 25 lakh this year but all that seemed very distant now. 8220;I have already spent Rs 11 lakh on infrastructure and labour advance. Now I have been told by the police to feed them till they stay in this relief camp,8221; Das told The Indian Express.

District authorities are shifting all brickfield workers to schools where police protection has been provided.

8220;It is not possible to reach out to every brickfield. They are located in remote areas, most without roads. So we have asked the owners to shift them to groups where we will provide police pickets,8221; said A K Absar Hazarika, Tinsukia Deputy Commissioner.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, who was here today, also suggested that labour hands scattered in different areas be gathered so that it became easy to protect them.

Story continues below this ad

8220;But this violence should not be called a clash between the Assamese and the Hindi-speaking people. I have met Assamese victims of this senseless violence. And the local people are helping the Hindi-speaking people in distress,8221; he said. There are more than 3,000 Bihari labour hands in the 20-plus brickfields in Tinsukia. 8220;The militants find them soft targets because they work in remote places,8221; said R N Mathur, Assam DGP, who has been camping here for the last three days.