Moran’s killing unfortunate: Army

It was Ajit Mahanta of Kakopathar Gossaigaon, then a 5-year-old boy of Mohonggaon, Pengeri and now Buddheswar Moran of Doomdooma Kordoiguri. All of Tinsukia district. All found to be innocents but killed by the Army during the counter insurgency operations, claiming them to be ULFA militants, except the five year old boy, because he was too young to be called a militant.

Buddheswar was killed by the troops of the 5 Jammu & Kashmir Rifles late on May 5 at Laopatty village under Doomdooma police station. Army claimed he was a ULFA militant and that some arms, ammunition and incriminating documents were recovered from his possession. Later his native villagers claimed that Buddheswar was an innocent villager with no links with the ULFA. In fact the villagers said Buddheswar was a beneficiary of a vocational programme in metal welding imparted by the Army under its Operation Sadbhavana. A chowkidar in a private tea estate, Buddheswar was father to two tiny tots. His wife is a plain housewife.

Irate villagers this time too came out to the streets in large numbers to protest the killing of an innocent by the Army. In the course of their protests, they have been blocking National Highway-37 and national Highway-52, and more significantly, have refused to accept the body of Buddheswar for his last rites, leading to a piquant situation. On May 8, district administration officials of Tinsukia had to beat a hasty retreat, as an offensive measure of trying to clamp section 144 CrPC at Dholla, Doomdooma and Kakopathar was met with stiff public resistance. The police and the CRPF tried every trick in their bags to prevent people from staging any demonstration, but even so, people came out in large numbers. Obviously, the civil administration did not have a faintest inkling of what is in the mind of the aggrieved people.

At the Circuit House, the GOC of 2 Mountain Division, Major General N C Marwah, after much persuasion from the scribes, agreed to address the media, where he termed the Buddheswar Moran killing as unfortunate. He said he will institute an Army inquiry to look into the incident, and assured that the inquiry would be impartial and time bound. The GOC later went to Rupai, where he spoke to the agitating crowd and reassured that an Army inquiry is on.

Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi and MLAs from the district also visited Doomdooma today. Bordoloi requested the people to cooperate with the Commissioner level inquiry being conducted by Upper Assam Commissioner Hemanta Narzary. Without quantifying, Bordoloi said the State Government would make an ex-gratia payment to the family of Buddheswar Moran. He too requested the locals of Kordoiguri to take the body of Moran for the last rites. The body is still at the morgue of the civil hospital.

Meanwhile, at both Kakopathar and Tiphuk, where the National Highway blockade agitations are on for the third and second day today respectively, people there appeared in no mood to call off their stir. This evening, the agitators said they would consider the matter of calling off the stir only after Assam Governor Lt Gen (Rtd) Ajai Singh or Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi came to speak to them personally

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