Army moves into Assam

Press, 4 March 1983, Page 8

Army moves into Assam

NZPA-Reuter Gauhati

Troops moved into trouble spots across Assam as the Government of the northeastern Indian state resorted to special powers to stop bloodshed, after fresh violence claimed more than 30 lives on Wednesday. The State Government, formed by the Congress (I) Party of the Prime Minister. Mrs Indira Gandhi, at the week-end. declared six districts as "disturbed areas" and summoned the Army to restore order. About 2500 people have died in Assam in the last month. The Government said that the Army had been instructed to take the strongest possible measures to prevent communal or inter-group clashes.

It had been empowered to make searches and arrests without warrant; destroy arms dumps, hide-outs, and fortified positions; and recover stolen property or arms, ammunition, and explosives.

The move comes after a wave of violence across the state which coincided with elections to the 126-seat Assam Assembly last month.

The ballot was opposed by

militant racial Assamese political and student groups, who said that large numbers of illegal immigrants, mostly Muslim, from neighbouring Bangladesh, had been registered as voters. The Assamese say that the outsiders have taken over valuable farmland and jobs, and they want them deported. Their campaign helped spark the violence and in one incident in mid-February between 1000 and 1500 Muslim immigrant villagers were butchered by tribesmen in the central Nowgong district. More violence against the immigrants was reported from upper Assam this week Twenty-four immigrant fishermen in a small village on the Brahmaputra River were killed by an angry crowd of 1000 Assamese Hindus. Officials said that the attack had apparently been retribution for immigrant participation in the recent elections, which were boycotted by hardline Assamese. In a separate attack. 300 village huts were burned down in the Nowgong area and eight people died when tribal gangs rampaged through an immigrant hamlet.