Tags:
Journalism of Courage
With a wave of ULFA attacks leaving 69 people dead and triggering an exodus of Bihari migrants who were the main targets, security forces today began hunting for militant hideouts in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The Centre, while rushing additional paramilitary forces to the state, said it was all set to seek help from Bangladesh and Myanmar in its efforts to contain the ULFA.
Sending a strong message to the ULFA, Defence Minister A K Antony, after a meeting with Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and other senior officials in Tezpur,said: ‘‘We will seek the help of Bangladesh and Myanmar in addressing the issue of ULFA cadres operating from these countries’’. Antony reached Tezpur with Army chief General J J Singh and Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt.
Gen Singh said that the Army had sent some 3,000 jawans from its 2 Mountain Division to Sibsagar and Dhemaji districts. This was in in addition to 2,000 paramilitary jawans being rushed to the area.
Gogoi, after a tour of the violence-hit areas, claimed that the ULFA was targeting migrants on the instructions of Pakistan’s ISI. ‘‘There is no doubt that the ULFA is working on the instructions of the ISI. The countries (Pakistan and Bangladesh) where ULFA leaders are taking shelter do not want peace in Assam. The ULFA is also not interested in peace talks,’’ he told reporters.
BJP president Rajnath Singh, who met the injured victims today, blamed the UPA for not taking the ULFA threat seriously. But he did not agree with the demand for Central rule in the state. ‘‘President’s Rule is not the solution to the terror problem. To eliminate terrorism, the area has to be handed over to the Army.’’ He slammed the Gogoi government for not acting in time. ‘‘At the time of elections, the present state government had an understanding with militant elements. Hence, they are under an obligation,’’ he alleged.
In Tinsukia and Dibrugarh, where panic-stricken migrants boarded trains bound for Bihar, there were many others who said they had nowhere else to go. Assam, they said, was their home.
‘‘We may speak Hindi but we belong to Assam. Many of us have lost links with the places from where our forefathers came during the days of the British,’’ said Ramnivesh Yadav, a petty shopkeeper in Tinsukia. His great grandfather came to Assam to work in the coalmines at Makum and the family has today grown in size to number more than 30. There are hundreds of such migrants who are Biharis only in name. “We belong to Assam, Assam is our only home,” echoed Bindeswar Prasad, another shopkeeper.
In fact, Tinsukia is represented in the state assembly by Rajendra Prasad Singh, a third-generation Bihari whose grandfather had come 75 years ago to set up a small grocery shop near a tea garden here. “My grandfather came from Chapra, but today I am proud to introduce myself as an Assamese,” said Singh who has been elected twice and speaks fluent Assamese.
About 40 per cent of voters in the Tinsukia assembly segment are Hindi-speaking. “People from Bihar and eastern UP came here in the British days to work in steamer companies, coalfields, saw mills and the oil industry. A large number of them have intermingled and married locally. They are inseparable from the Assamese community,” said MLA Singh.
