INDIAN PARAMILITARY troops have opened fire on rioters in the northeastern state of Assam after 21 people were found shot dead and hacked to death with machetes in clashes over land rights.
About 40,000 villagers have fled to more than 60 government relief camps since violence erupted last Friday between the ethnic Bodo community and Muslims in Assam’s western district of Kokrajhar, said the state’s police chief, Jayanta Narayan Choudhury.
“The situation remains very tense,” he said yesterday .
He denied claims that 3,000 paramilitary troops sent in to quell the violence had been given “shoot-on-sight” orders, but admitted that at least one rioter had been shot dead by police yesterday.
“Troops have been told to use the minimum force necessary to stop arson and killing,” said Choudhury. Other reports suggested four people had been killed by security forces during the day.
Overnight, about 80 homes were burned down as the violence spread to neighbouring Dhubri and Chirang districts.
Police said 21 bodies were found in the jungle, by the road or by the riverside. Some of the corpses appeared to have been hacked with machetes.
Assam’s emergency services were already stretched after coping with floods that have killed at least 125 people this month. More than 70,000 people are still in relief camps after their homes were damaged or destroyed by flood waters and landslides.
The latest violence was sparked on Friday night when unidentified men killed four youths in Kokrajhar, police and district officials said.
In retaliation, armed Bodos attacked Muslims, suspecting them of being behind the killings.
At noon yesterday the streets of Kokrajhar were deserted until dark smoke suddenly rose into the sky as a mob torched houses just a few hundred metres from the police station.
Firefighters and paramilitaries rushed to the scene as locals cried for help.
“Why are they doing this? We are poor people and we do not have money to reconstruct our houses,” said Moti Devi, as she watched her neighbours’ house burn. “What did we do wrong? Please keep us safe,” she urged troops. – (Guardian service)