People's Democracy

ASSAM

Massive Response To Anti-Terrorism Day 

Isfaqur Rahman 

IN response to the call given by the Assam state committee of the CPI(M), Party units across the state observed ’Anti-Terrorism Day’ on January 19 condemning the cowardly acts of brutality and savagery perpetrated by the banned extremist outfit ULFA. 

Even as the ULFA issued quit notice to ‘Indians’ (“all Indian citizens who migrated to Assam”) and announced a general strike to boycott the Republic Day, large number of people came out on to the streets and observed the day by holding sit-in-demonstrations, meetings, processions, street-corner meetings etc. The outfit had published their notice and announcement a day before in their latest issue of the bulletin ‘Swadhinata’ (Freedom), datelined January 15, 2007.

So far, the extremist outfit has killed more than 75 innocent people, mostly Hindi-speaking poor labourers, since January 5 and the carnage zone has been extended from upper districts to other parts of the state, including the capital city of Guwahati. On January 17, the ULFA struck again in Guwahati as three persons lost their lives and at least 26 others, including women, were injured in a blast triggered by the extremists inside the busy Ganeshguri wholesale market in the evening.

The blast was fourth in the city within a fortnight. Surprisingly, the state administration imposed ban on processions, meetings etc. in many places and created impediment in mobilising the people against terrorism. The anti-democratic attitude of the administration would certainly not help to fight back terror. Mass mobilisation and popular participation is the only guarantee to isolate the terrorist outfits, the CPI(M) asserted.

The Kamrup (Metro) district committee of the CPI(M) organised sit-in-demonstration in Guwahati in front of the district library to protest the terror unleashed by the ULFA. Prominent intellectuals, cultural and literary personalities, along with Party leaders and activists, participated in the anti-terror action.

Addressing the huge gathering, the CPI(M) central committee member Hemen Das condemned the massacre of Hindi-speaking people and asked the ULFA to shun violence and come to the negotiating table without any precondition. The CPI(M) leader also demanded of the central government to assist the Assam administration in tackling the situation firmly and also to display sincerity and urgency in seeking political solutions to the ULFA problem through dialogue. Direct talks must be held without any pre-condition from any quarter, Hemen Das said. Ridiculing ULFA’s demand for a ‘Sovereign Assam’, Das asserted, the state has always been an integral part of the Indian Union.

While the cultural activists, including octogenarian celebrity Dilip Sarma, presented songs to give vent to their ire against terrorism, prominent painters have drawn colourful paintings to register protest against the mayhem and terror. Prominent artist Samiran Boruah inaugurated ‘on the spot drawing’ and was joined by Monika Devi, Kiron Sankar Roy, Hariprasad Talukdar, Kamal Mahanta, Monoj Roy, Subhakar Laskar, Hemanta Bayan, Jyoti Kumar Kalita etc. Poet Kamal Medhi and Shyamal Biswas joined the recitation. The protest action was conducted by prominent writer Bijanlal Choudhury. Earlier Tiken Das, CPI(M) district secretary explained the objective of the protest action.

Concluding the demonstration in Guwahati, the CPI(M) state secretary Uddhab Barman strongly condemned the terror tactics of the ULFA and exhorted upon the people to unitedly defeat the evil designs of the outfit. He condemned the role of the state administration in many parts of the state where restrictions were imposed in mobilising the people against terrorism. The ‘Anti-Terrorism Day’ was also observed throughout the state. In Barpeta district, processions and street corner meetings etc. were held at Sorbhog, Barpeta Road, Barpeta Town, Bahari, Kayakuchi, Kalgachia etc. In Kokrajhar district, sit-in-demonstration was organised at Kokrajhar while a procession was taken out at Manikpur. The district administration in Sonitpur has imposed ban on mass action. The police disrupted a programme at Balipara and chased away people who were assembled to organise a protest action. Later, the CPI(M) activists held a meeting to condemn the ban and promulgation of Section 144 by the Sonitpur district administrtion. Defying ban, however, the CPI(M) units organised meetings, demonstrations etc. at Borchala, Jamuguri, Tupia-Toubhanga, Dhekiajuli, Biswanath Chariali etc. In the upper Assam district of Dibrugarh also, where the ULFA struck terror and turned the district into a killing field during January 5-8, the CPI(M) unit at Naharkatia organised a protest procession. Similarly at Tinsukia, the focal point of the carnage zone, Party units organised processions and street corner meetings at various places. 

At Jorhat also a procession was organised and meeting held. Reports of anti-terror protest actions are pouring in from Lakhimpur, Goalpara, Nagaon and in the Barak Valley districts were also received. 

January 19, 2007