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| Headlines Vol. 2 Issue 29-30 | Dec.7-Dec.21,1999 |
It was 1.30 pm in the afternoon of November 11, '99. Mukund Kalia abruptly stopped his vigorous digging and let out a sharp cry. The hundred odd people present in the vast stretch of marshland gathered around him and gasped. The fingers of a buried man pointed at the on-lookers from under the moist mud. Slowly these people dug out the body. The corpse was dressed only in a pair of shorts and a full-sleeved shirt placed next to him in the grave. The body's legs were crossed to minimise space requirement. A piece of cloth was stuffed in his mouth — an evidence of him having been gagged to death. Led by the United Revolutionary Movement Council of Assam and CPI-ML, the people of this area in the Nalbari district of Assam had decided to dig up this marshland in the Gagabeel province believing that they might find buried bodies of many people who had disappeared without any trace. The belief about a 'mass grave' gained momentum after the body of Prasanna Kalita, a very popular leader and CPI-ML activist, who had disappeared on October 28, was dug out on November 2 from a spot, some 30 feet away from where the second body was discovered later on the 11th. Prasanna's mouth too had been stuffed by a piece of cloth and pieces of clothing and footwear were also found beside his body. The digging operation on November 11 started around 11 am in the morning after people
marched to the area in a procession from Kachikhuti, Prasanna's native village which is
five kms. away from Ghagabeel. Mukund Kalita incidentally is the brother of Prasanna's
wife. The body that was dug out on November 11, hasn't been identified as yet. A CPI-ML
leader, Biswajeet Chakravarty urged the volunteers to restrain themselves from causing
disturbance while digging is on. He also cautioned to look out for electric wires
suspecting some explosives or mines, might have been planted by the terrorists. He was
totally convinced that Prasanna was murdered by the ULFA at the behest of some contractor.
Before digging the first thing that the crowd did was to make a bonfire of the shed used
by the chowkidar of the property belonging to one Dr. Madhukar Barman, sub-divisional
medical officer, Rangiya. There are allegations that the killers used to bring their
victims to the shed and torture them before killing them. Nalbari SP, Apurba Jiban Barua
said that Dr. Barman would certainly be made a party to the case but whether he was aware
of the 'going-ons' on his land would be known only after an investigation. Barua wanted
the people to chalk out the future course of action as far as the decision to do further
digging was concerned. "We want to get to the bottom of this. The police would help
in recovering the bodies if there are any", said the SP. He said more scientific
methods would be adopted, if possible, to detect burial pits. However, the police had
previously ridiculed the idea of a mass-grave. The discovey took the police by surprise.
After Mukunda Kalita's discovery, ASP Nitya Goswami informed the police control room that
indeed a body had been found. That brought the DC and the SP to the spot with more forces.
The Nalbari district police chief described the action as "brave and a giant-leap for
people's movement against terrorism. More so since Nalbari is still considered to be a
stronghold of the ULFA". The SP also acknowledged the fact that in the last one year
more than half a dozen people have been reported missing in the area. The CPI-ML leaders
believed strongly that over a hundred bodies had been buried here in the last couple of
years. They also described the action as a great success for the people's fight against
militancy. DC A.K. Bhutani said the people could dig if they wanted and the administration
would provide all possible help. "After all it is the people who have to take up
cudgels against terrorism". |
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