Shame on Beltola residents who let it go to this extent!
Read the report from the Telegraph and see for yourself who have taken over
the streets of Guwahati, in this case the street vendors. Does that hold true
for all of Guwahati? I hope that is not the case in Uzanbazar where I grew up.
I suspect this is how the sequence/chronology went:
The front line of the processionists got violent, damaged property all along
and ran.
The business owners and their employees started revenge on the next batch of
processionists that consisted of the non-violent weaker members including this
woman.
The local residents and reinforcement of security forces got into action and
controlled the street mob to bring an end to the fury.
Unfortunately I felt many years ago this is how Guwahati will turn out to be
due to uncontrolled growth. What can I say?
Dilip Deka
===================================================
FROM THE TELEGRAPH
Shame on Guwahati streets
A STAFF REPORTER Guwahati, Nov. 26: A young Adivasi woman ran
down a Guwahati street naked, stripped by ethnic rioters, while leering city
youths clicked away with their cellphone cameras.
As television today brought to Assam homes one more scene of Saturdays
street horror when hundreds of tribals were attacked over a 3.5km stretch of
the city police arrested the womans three tormentors.
The three had pounced on her like a pack of dogs and started stripping her.
All her pleas fell on deaf ears till they had stripped her naked. Only then did
they let her go, said a police officer quoting eyewitnesses to the mob
retaliation to a violent Adivasi students march.
The woman sprinted away from a large group of jeering men and ran on in panic
till somebody threw her a piece of clothing.
The sight left homemaker Ananya Baruah dumbfounded on her second-floor
balcony at Beltola, the epicentre from where the rioting spilled over several
localities.
She was running like mad. Some people were clicking pictures with their
cellphones. It was one of the worst crimes any civilised society could have
committed. I felt so helpless just watching. The girl disappeared into one of
the by-lanes.
The victim was probably a participant in the armed Adivasi procession in
demand of Scheduled Tribe status that had turned violent and damaged private
and public property, including cars.
As the police began dispersing the tribals, angry local mobs chased down the
stragglers among them. Adivasi men, women and children were dragged across
streets and mercilessly beaten up with the police refusing to intervene. The
violence left some 300 injured and a 12-year-old boy dead.
The ethnic conflict claimed a second life this morning. Santosh Kumar, 17,
was dragged out of a vehicle on a highway for defying an Adivasi-enforced
bandh that was yet to begin, and hacked to death.
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi announced the arrests of the trio who had stripped
the woman and offered the victim Rs 1 lakh in compensation. Prasenjit
Chakravarty, Sandip Chakdar and Ratul Barman were nabbed on the basis of video
footage and eyewitness accounts.
Ratul, a waiter at Mahalaxmi Hotel in Beltola, is barely 18. The main accused
is Prasenjit, 28, owner of Dainty Fast Food restaurant in the same locality.
Sandip, 20, owns a paan shop near the hotel where Ratul works.
The charges against them range from outraging a womans modesty to attempt to
murder.
Gogoi announced a judicial probe into the violence by the All Adivasi
Students Association of Assam as well as the mob backlash. The state
government has announced a compensation of Rs 3 lakh for the families of the
dead.
Ram Dhar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
.hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage {
FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } infact it did happen ..
Please note - you may find this video content very very disturbing.
Really shocked to see this happening in our Gauhati.
CNN-IBN video-
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/53043/guwahati-residents-strip-beat-up-women-protestors.html
---------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:10:55 -0600
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India
This news, IF TRUE, is a darn shame, and if it is NOT, then we should all
join hand in vehemently protesting to the TOI, and demand that the publish
clarifications prominently and apologize to Assam & her people.
--Ram
Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati
27 Nov 2007, 0001 hrs IST ,TNN
SMS NEWS to 58888 for latest updates
GUWAHATI: Like in most bandhs and protests, poor adivasi workers
from the once lush tea gardens of Assam did dent business and damage some
property as they marched through Guwahati to demand inclusion in the Scheduled
Tribes list which will help them get easier access to education and jobs.
But it was one adivasi woman who bore the brunt of the anger of local
residents. She was attacked, her clothes were ripped off and a mob chased the
naked woman along the streets. Ducking from prying eyes and TV cameras and
terrified by screams of a mob chasing her, the woman ran until some other
residents rescued her on Saturday and gave her clothes and cover both from the
lathi-wielding police and the assailants.
Two days later, after the protests spiralled as news of the attack on the woman
got out, Assam's CM Tarun Gogoi said he was enraged by the crowd behaviour and
police said three of the assailants had been arrested. He announced a Rs 1 lakh
compensation for the woman, whose identity was not disclosed. "I am horrified
by the incident. I cannot believe how people can be so inhuman and barbaric.
Everybody seems to have lost their sense," said Gogoi on Monday. The CM also
announced a judicial inquiry into Saturday's violence.
Police said three men were picked up from their houses early Monday. They were
identified as Prasenjit Chakravorty (28), owner of a fast food joint, Ratul
Barman (18), a hotel waiter, and Sudip Chakdar (20), a pan shop owner.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Sibu Soren, who has pitched in for Assam's adivasi
migrants, said the incident demonstrated the racial hatred for tribals. "I have
also led many agitations, but never had we targeted women. Adivasis across the
country are always looked down upon and do not get the respect they deserve
from people and the government as a whole," Soren said on Monday after visiting
injured protesters.
Former Jharkhand CM Babulal Marandi also waded in as the bandh took a tribal vs
non-tribal hue. He flew into Guwahati Monday afternoon and went straight for a
press conference with the main opposition party Assam Gana Parishad (AGP).
"This is a conspiracy hatched by Congress government," he charged. Although
Guwahati remained largely peaceful in the last phase of the 36-hour protest
that began on Saturday, the stripping incident gave it a new impetus in many
areas where the sponsors, the All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam, had
clout.
Sporadic violence was reported and bandh supporters attacked one vehicle at
Karigaon in Kokrajhar district, killing one person and injuring two others. So
far, at least six people have been killed in clashes between adivasi activists
and local people. About 250 people have been injured in police action or
clashes.
---------------------------------
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