GUWAHATI, July 28 � There is a grave political design behind the ongoing ethnic clashes in the three Lower Assam districts of the Bodoland Territorial Administrative District (BTAD). There should be a CBI inquiry into the immediate provocations that led to the clashes covering the roles of the politicians too, said Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) general secretary Akhil Gogoi here today.
It also made an appeal to the political and social leaders of all the ethnic groups living in the BTAD areas to settle their mutual scores through a round table conference.
Briefing the media persons on the outcome of the yesterday visit of a KMSS team to some of the relief camps located in and around Kokrajhar town, Akhil Gogoi said both the Bodos and the minorities are of the opinion that the common Bodo people were not involved in the clashes.
Moreover, contrary to the claims of certain political quarters that fire arms from across the international border had a role in the clashes, common Bodo people are of the opinion that minorities attacked them with bamboo sticks and choppers, he claimed.
Both the Bodos and the minorities allege that police remained a silent spectator to the incidents of violence. This indicates that either the State administration has made the police ineffective or the BTAD administration has made them helpless, the KMSS general secretary said.
Many people alleged that one particular Minister incited the clashes to divert popular attention from the July 9 GS Road incident, he said and refrained from naming the Minister.
He asserted that mystery over the killing of four ex-Bodoland Liberation Tiger (BLT) members in a minority village, their transfer to the hands of their assasins from the police and the role of the politicians in the clashes should be made bare.
The basic causes of the BTAD clashes are, however, connected with the failure of the 2003 Memorandum of Settlement signed by the Union Government with the BLT to settle the land-related issues in the BTAD areas, constant migration; gross inefficiency, corruption and diabolic designs of the bureaucrats and politicians, intolerance of the rising middle classes of both the ethnic groups and the illegal arms in possession of the BTAD rulers, he said.
