At least two persons were shot dead by the police in Assam’s Kamrup Metropolitan district on Thursday after an eviction drive turned violent, a senior police official confirmed to Scroll.
Several police officers were also injured in a scuffle with the residents, the official said.
The incident occurred in Kachutali village under the Sonapur revenue circle on the outskirts of Guwahati.
The deceased persons were identified as 18-year-old Jubahir Ali and Haidar Ali. Both were residents of Kachutali.
Jubahir Ali’s father, 40 -year-old Giasuddin, told Scroll: “People were living under the tarpaulin and makeshift houses. The officials came again today again around 10 am and asked to vacate the place immediately. Many people were angry as they have nowhere to go.”
“My child was among the crowd when the police fired on him,” said Giasuddin, who works as a daily wage labourer at a cement company. He said their house was dismantled during the eviction drive.
An official told PTI that the villagers attacked police officers with sharp weapons, sticks and stones, injuring a magistrate and over 20 police personnel. They said a police vehicle was also damaged.
The police had to open fire to disperse the mob, the official reportedly claimed.
On Monday, the district administration bulldozed more than 140 homes of persons living on government land, The Times of India reported.
“The administration launched the eviction on Monday and some people were living under tarpaulin,” Main Haque Choudhuri, a Kachutali resident and former president of Sonapur panchayat, told Scroll. “They asked the evicted people to vacate the place again today [Thursday]. As they don’t have any place to go, they refused to go. This led to tensions.”
The evicted persons are affected by the erosion of soil along river banks and do not have any other place to live, he said.
Choudhuri alleged that at least 60 Muslim families were evicted from the government land, which is located in a tribal-dominated area, while no action was taken against non-Muslims who also live there.
“It is a communal eviction,” he alleged. “Non-Muslims and non-tribals were not evicted. Thousands of non-Muslims are living on government land.”
Out of the 145 villages in Sonapur revenue circle, 122 fall under the tribal belt. Of these, three villages, Kachutali pathar, Chamata pathar and Barni have been encroached by persons belonging to the non-protected groups, the newspaper quoted Sonapur circle officer Nitul Khataniar as saying.
In August, protestors had blocked a national highway to demand the eviction of allegedly illegal settlers in the area. Sumit Sattawan, the district commissioner, had assured protestors that an eviction drive would be carried out to protect the rights of the tribal groups, the newspaper reported.
In September 2021, two persons were shot dead by the police in the Sipajhar area of Assam’s Darrang district. The Assam government had ordered an inquiry into the killings by a retired judge of the Gauhati High Court.
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