How Recent Devastation Erupted
By MOHD ABDUL RAHIM QURAISHI
On July 6, two Muslim students were killed and after some days two more Muslims were done to death. On July 19, two student leaders, Mohibul Islam, President of All Bodoland Minority Students Union and Shaik Siddique Ahmed, All Assam Minorities Student Union leader, were fatally attacked in a town of Kokrajhar District. Killing in a span of just 14 days, each following another, indicates a design to provoke Muslims to retaliate and then to use this retaliatory attack by Muslims as excuse to commit acts of violence against them and their villages to compel them to leave the Bodoland area.
When the murder of four Muslims did not evoke any reaction, they murdered two known Muslim Student leaders to prompt the Muslims to retaliate. And it worked the way the Bodo leaders had expected. On July 20, the very next day, four Bodo youth, former militants of Bodo Liberation Tigers, were killed at Joypur village. This provided the excuse, which militant Bodos were waiting for, to attack en-mass Bangla-speaking population to drive them to the neighbouring district of Dhubri. The violent incidents took place mostly in two districts – Kokrajhar and Chirang. More than 450 villages were devastated and more than 6,000 houses destroyed or burnt. That the militant Bodos were waiting for the excuse to re-start the cleansing campaign against Muslims can be seen in the interview of the Chief of Bodo Liberation Tigers who is now the Chief of Bodo Territorial Council, Hagrama Mohilary who pointed to the retaliatory murder of four Bodo militants to say that the Bodos are still unsafe in Bodoland and to complain ‘BTC does not have the home department. We are hobbled without it.… Law and order is not among the 40 subjects transferred to BTC….’ It may be noted that for attacks on non-Bodos and offences in July 2012, no one was booked, prosecuted or punished. This policy encourages commission of crimes with impunity.
HOODWINKING THE WORLD
Some persons, including some journalists are pointing accusing finger at Indian Muslims that they are so agitated over the plight of Bangla-speaking Muslims of Bodoland but have no feeling for Bodos who have suffered at the hands of Muslims and had to take refuge in relief camps. Such camps in Kokrajhar were set up by the BTC and flight of Bodos from some areas were planned to show the world that Bodos have also been subjected to brutalities. National press published photos of these camps. The fact is that about 20,000 Bodos left their villages and set off on foot or in carts for 20 odd camps set up by BTC in and around Kokrajhar. See what 126 years old Bodo Jagat Mushahary says: he and others from village Santahiabri at Bengtol in Chirang were packed off on trucks on July 21 by unknown people and brought to relief camps 70kms away. There was no trouble at his village of mixed population of 175 families of both Bodos and Muslims who were living like brothers. He only heard rumour that Bengalis were killing Bodos. The testimony of this 126-year-old Bodo makes it evident how Bodos were taken from their villages to camps set up by BTC in Kokrajhar district.
INFLUX OF BANGLADESHIS
In a recent interview, Mr. U.K. Bansal, Director General of Border Security Force, said that the number of persons intercepted by the BSF during last three or four years is only 10-15 per cent of what it used to be earlier. He did not rule out Bangladeshis crossing border to enter India. The economic miseries and bleak prospects are compelling some Bangladeshis to cross over to India where they can earn a square meal by their toil. But these are Hindu Bangladeshis as is evident from the census figures of that country showing proportion of Hindus declining. The Indian citizens have right to know the communal breakup of Bangladeshis infiltrating in India and names of states where they have settled down. A simple statement of influx of Bangladeshis in India gives a tool to the BJP and other Hindutva parties which are campaigning not only in Assam but elsewhere in India. International president of VHP G. Raghava Reddy threatened to launch a nationwide agitation to protest against ‘continued influx of Bangladeshis and continued attack on tribes and other Hindus in Assam’.
HOME MINISTRY STATEMENT
Recently the Government of India ordered strict surveillance of ‘14’ organisations in North Western India including Assam, whose activities were found to be ‘inimical to peace and social harmony’. This news has been circulated through national media and all these (14) organisations, really in existence or fictitious, appear to be Muslim as they bear names like Islamic Liberation Army, Muslim Security Council of Assam, Muslim Volunteer Force, etc. Those manning the Union Home Ministry and intelligence agencies seem to harbour anti-Muslim sentiments as they have been trying to shield Hindutva elements and to implicate Muslims in terrorist incidents of Mecca Masjid of Hyderabad, Malegaon, Ajmer, etc. The elements are out to give the Hindutva parties like BJP, VHP, ABVP, Bajrang Dal, etc. handle to whip up hate-campaign against Muslims. No incriminating activity by any of the 14 organisations has been made known to the Indian public. It is the duty to the Union Home Minister to purge the Ministry and agencies of such elements or to keep them under leash.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION
The present situation requires bold and purposeful initiatives and decisions by both Central and State Governments. First they should decide to rehabilitate all displaced persons languishing in camps. Many displaced Rajbagshis, Adivasis, Santhals are yet to return to their villages. All these displaced persons should be taken to their villages and rehabilitated under military protection, setting up posts of Special Armed Police or Military camps nearby. This will dampen the zeal for ethnic cleansing. Before rehabilitation no scrutiny should be made for detection of migrants who came after 1971. This can be done after rehabilitation.
The Government of India should think over and formulate a plan of cultural autonomy to tribes in the place of practice of territorial autonomy and of creating states. The plan of cultural autonomy will not be a challenge to the solidarity of the state. The Central Government should set up a committee of intellectuals and experts to prepare a scheme for guarantying cultural autonomy to tribes. The concept of territorial autonomy has already divided Assam as it was on August 15, 1947 into 7 states; if this practice continues, the remaining Assam will be divided in small bits of autonomous hundred square mile states.
The State Government should disarm armed groups of Bodos and others at any cost, even by deploying military. The State Government should suspend the present Bodo Territorial Council and reconsider its composition giving fair, almost proportional representation to all tribes and communities living in the four districts of Bodoland with some weightage to Bodos. The Government of India should decide that henceforth when any statement on migrants from Bangladeshis is made, in Parliament or to the press, it will also be stated how many of them are Hindus and how many are Muslims. (Concluded)
[The writer is Asst. Gen. Secretary, All India Muslim Personal Law Board and President, All India Majlis Tameer-e-Millat]