KILLING OF SCHOOL KIDS IN ASSAM

CPI(M) Stages Protests, Calls For 

Isolating Extremists

  Isfaqur Rahman

IN one of the biggest extremist attacks in Assam in recent years, 13 people – several of them innocent school children – were killed and 40 others were injured in a powerful bomb blast at Dhemaji in Upper Assam on August 15. The 58th Independence Day celebrations thus turned out to be a tragic affair for the state as mostly women and school children were killed in the bomb blast in the Dhemaji College playground where the district administration was celebrating the Independence Day.

The bomb planted near the gate of the college exploded at 8.55 a m, just five minutes ahead of the scheduled time of hoisting of the National Flag. The blast was so powerful that it caused a huge crate at the spot. The blast occurred at a time when the students and teachers of various schools were passing through the gate. The district administration had directed all schools to bring their students to the ground for the Independence Day celebrations. Most of the school students killed or injured were between 10 and 12 years of age. Some of them were to participate in the march past. The injured have been admitted to the Dhemaji Civil Hospital and four of those critically injured were later flown in an Army helicopter to Dibrugarh and admitted to the Assam Medical College Hospital there.

SECURITY LAPSES

Though no militant outfit has so far claimed responsibility for the blast, it is widely believed that it was the handiwork of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). The outfit was involved in several acts of violence in different parts of the state in the run-up to the Independence Day celebrations. A bomb was exploded in Dhakuakhana at around 8 a m on the same day. Fortunately, no one was injured. But the police failed to take adequate preventive measures to protect the lives of the innocent women and children in the state. That the blast at Dhakuakhana failed to ring the alarm bells in Dhamaji shows the sorry state of police alertness.

Meanwhile, the ULFA admitted, in an oblique manner, that the Dhemaji blast was its handiwork. In a statement issued on August 16, the self-styled chairman of the banned outfit, Arabinda Rajkhowa, stated that the schoolchildren of Dhemaji were used as a shield by the 'Indian occupation force' and its agents to defy the boycott call 'of a struggling organisation which has been engaging itself to uphold the popular interest despite military repression.'

  The blast in Dhemaji within a supposedly secure zone was clearly the result of major security lapses on the part of the police and the local administration. The declarations made by officials that all possible security measures had been taken were proved to be false. The fact that the government lost no time in ordering the suspension of the Dhemaji SP and Additional SP, as well as the transfer of the DC, indicates a desperate governmental damage-control and public relations exercise. It is also an admission that those assigned to prevent such incidents from taking place had failed in their duties.

CPI (M)'s outrage, protest actions

The Assam state committee of the CPI(M) strongly condemned the heinous killings at Dhemaji by suspected ULFA extremists. Immediately  after the incident, the party issued a statement expressing shock at the incident and condemning it as an “act of cowardice and savagery”. The party also registered its strong protest against the failure of the state administration in containing terrorist depredations in the state. “The state government has even failed to protect the innocent schoolchildren. The incident at Dhemaji amply proved the failure of the administration on the law and order front”, the CPI(M) stated. The Party called upon the people of the state and the democratic forces in particular to build up state-wide protest actions against the terrorist violence. It also demanded that the culprits responsible for this ghastly crime must be immediately nabbed.

On August 17, the CPI (M) organised a protest march in the capital city of Guwahati in protest against the extremist killings at Dhemaji and also against the failure of the state  administration in protecting the innocent people. Several hundred party activists and sympathisers assembled at Judges Field and participated in the protest actions. Addressing the protesters, CPI(M) leaders Ananta Deka and Deben Bhattacharya exhorted the people to mobilise public opinion with a view to isolating the extremists. Later, the slogan shouting Party workers took out a procesion and paraded through the main streets of the city and converged in the field.

Meanwhile, the Assam state committee of the CPI(M) has given a call for a 12-hour ‘Assam Bandh’ beginning from 5 a m on August 18. The bandh was called in protest against the inhuman, barbaric and heinous action of the extremists who have targeted even small schoolchildren and also against the failure of the state administration in ensuring security to the people. The Party state secretary, Hemen Das, in a press release on August 17 appealed to the people of the state and all democratic forces to make the proposed 'Assam Bandh' a success.

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has also called for a 12-hour statewide bandh on August 18 to protest against the bomb blast by suspected ULFA militants at Dhemaji on August 15. The AASU has demanded  the resignation of Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi.

(August 17, 2004)