Cars clog a petrol pump in Tura on Tuesday. There was a mad rush for
fuel as tension continued to prevail in Tura and no fresh supplies
arrived from outside. June 27 : The bodies of eight migrant workers who were murdered by a gang of armed men on Sunday night in Nangalbibra coal belt of Garo hills in Meghalaya were handed over to Assam today while the inter-state border areas remained on high alert.
The bodies of the victims, six from
Goalpara district and two from Dhubri district, were brought from
Williamnagar in East Garo Hills after autopsy.
The deputy commissioner of South Garo
Hills, Chinmoy P. Gothmare, along with magistrates and police officials
from Meghalaya, accompanied the bodies to Damra police outpost in Assam.
Goalpara deputy commissioner, who received the bodies, handed them over
to the bereaved families. “We handed the bodies and the ex gratia
amount to the Assam officials who were present at Damra. The families of
the victims were there to receive the bodies,” Gothmare told The Telegraph.
A sum of Rs 4 lakh — Rs 3 lakh ex gratia
from the Meghalaya government and Rs 1 lakh from the coalmine operator —
was handed over to the families of each victim.
Assam has announced an ex gratia of Rs 2
lakh, said press adviser to chief minister Tarun Gogoi, Bharat Chandra
Narah. Gogoi also spoke to his Meghalaya counterpart Mukul Sangma, Narah
added.
Family members said the Meghalaya
government’s “negligence” had led to the violence. “My son has been
working in the mine since the past four years. He had left for Nangol 17
days back. Whenever he returned home, he used to say he would look for
another job, as the situation in Meghalaya was not conducive because
militants frequently attacked labourers from Assam. But the Meghalaya
government never took notice,” said Anif Ali, father of Madan, after
receiving his son’s body. The family are from 2nd Ghat near Khormuja,
about 20km from Goalpara.
After the incident, a large number of
labourers and businessmen from Assam have left Nangal, Jadi, Pather
Getam, Ranjeng and Dubu in Meghalaya and returned home.
A businessman from Dudhnoi in Goalpara
district, who has a shop at Dubu, said the Meghalaya government had
failed to control the situation and, instead, advised those from Assam
to leave. “After the incident policemen came and told me that they could
not protect us and advised me to shut down the shop and leave
Meghalaya. I returned to save my life,” the businessman, who did not
wish to be identified, said.
Mofidul Islam, who escaped the attacks, said there were 18 labourers in the camp, eight of whom were killed.
On the exodus of labourers, Gothmare said,
“We have instructed coalmine owners to escort their labourers to the
nearest police station in South Garo Hills so that the administration
can ensure their safe return to Assam.”
A magisterial inquiry headed by an
additional district magistrate has been ordered to probe into the Sunday
massacre. A high alert has been sounded throughout the inter-state
border between Assam and Meghalaya’s Garo hills, following the handing
over of the bodies. Section 144 CrPC has been put in place in
Williamnagar and other towns of East Garo Hills and in Nangalbibra and
Baghmara in South Garo Hills.
The Bajengdoba-Tikrikilla-Mendipather area shares a long porous border with the neighbouring state.
“We have put in place our forces,
including paramilitary personnel, in different locations,” Meghalaya
inspector-general of police H. Nongpluh, who is overseeing the security
in Garo hills, said.
Peace meetings were held today at
Williamnagar and Resubelpara in North Garo Hills, while in violence-hit
Nangalbibra, several hundred people took out a procession to denounce
the violence.
In another incident, a girl was raped and
killed at Lemakona under Lakhipur police station, 25km from Goalpara
town, yesterday.
Lakhipur police station officer-in-charge
Mokib Ali said the girl had gone to a nearby rubber garden around 6.30pm
and was missing since. After sometime, family members launched a search
and recovered her body after which they informed the police. A case has
been registered. Officials from both Meghalaya and Assam ruled out any
connection of the incident with the situation in Garo hills.
Tura Lok Sabha MP Agatha K. Sangma today
sought the intervention of Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde into
the Garo hills situation. “There could be backlash to these events
especially in border areas of the state bordering Assam,” Agatha
apprehended in the letter to Shinde.
She, however, stressed that the
administration in Garo hills and Assam should ensure that the supply of
essential commodities remain unaffected. The MP will camp in Garo hills
from tomorrow to take stock of the situation.