Assam rocked by fresh violence

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 8

Assam rocked by fresh violence

NZPA-Reuter Gauhati

Assam has been rocked by fresh Hindu-Muslim clashes as the state Government struggles to complete voting for a local assembly amid unprecedented bloodshed during the poll. The first two days of polling were held this week with the last day scheduled tomorrow, but some of the first day’s elections will be repeated because they were disrupted by violence. During the second phase of the ballot Muslim immigrants mounted new attacks on Assamese villagers with bows and arrows, guns and spears.

An indefinite curfew was clamped on the area round Assam’s central town of

Mangaldai, where at least eight people were killed in the fighting, according to unofficial reports. More than 250 people have died in Assam so far this months in violence associated with an anti-immigrant campaign by hardline local Assamese Hindus.

Mangaldai is in Assam’s rice-growing Darrang district — the scene of a massacre by tribal gangs last week-end when at least 100 people died and hundreds of thatched-roof huts were burned in about 20 villages. In Delhi, opposition groups have unanimously decided to demand a special parliamentary debate on the Assam violence after the Darrang massacre. The Prime Minister, Mrs

Indira Gandhi, called elections in the state after talks with local political organisations on the thorny immigrants issue broke down. Militant Assamese political and student groups, demanding the expulsion of large numbers of illegal immigrants, have asked electors to boycott the poll in protest at the inclusion -of the migrants on electoral rolls.

Many of the Assameseinhabited villages were backing the boycott, although some tea growing and immigrant areas saw moderate to heavy polling. The police had opened fire on several occasions to stop crowds attacking polling stations.