Silchar, Oct 21: Two persons identified as Samar Das and Raju Deb, who were arrested by Cachar Police on charges of destroying Government property allegedly for defacing a hoarding of Jal Jeevan Mission which carried texts in the Assamese language at the Silchar Railway station were granted bail by a court here on Wednesday and accordingly, they were released.
The persons out on bail belonged to All Bengali Youth and Students Organisation,(ABYSO) Assam. According to Rathindra Das, general secretary of the organisation, they had gone to express solidarity to the protest called by the Barak Democratic Youth Front (BDYF) against the use of Assamese language in the hoarding of Jal Jeevan Mission in Barak Valley. But Das claimed that they are in no way linked to the incident of defacing the hoarding.
On the other hand, After being granted bail, the duo said that they had protested the intent of imposition of a language in Barak Valley and not against Assamese or any other language per se. However, they made it clear that they would raise their voice if attempts are being made to target the Bengali language in any way.
It may be mentioned that while the Cachar District Administration had lodged an FIR against Barak Democratic Youth Front (BDYF) on Monday for allegedly defacing the hoarding of Jal Jeevan Mission with the texts used in the hoarding in the Assamese language at the Silchar Railway station, the BDYF, on Tuesday had filed an FIR against the chairperson of the Jal Jeevan Mission Cachar Assam alleging that the said advertisement in the Assamese language installed in Barak Valley has violated The Assam Official Language (Amendment) Act, 1961. The BDF has however claimed that the protest at the Silchar railway station was in no way against Assamese or any other language but on the intent of imposition of a language here in Barak Valley.
