Illegal weapons abound in western Assam
Source: The Sangai Express (Supriya Sharma, Courtesy : TNN)

Kokrajhar/Guwahati, November 26 2012: In the violent clashes between Bodos and Muslims in July-August in western Assam, of 97 people killed, ten had fallen to bullets.

It indicated a large presence of illegal firearms in the region.

The second round of violence only confirmed this.

In mid-November, of 10 people killed within a week, nine had died of bullet injuries, five from automatic weapons.

After the government gave Bodos partial autonomy by creating Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in 2003 following an agreement with one of the groups, Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), the latter transformed into Bodo People's Front (BPF), the political party that now rules BTC.

"They were supposed to surrender all their arms, but it appears they retained some weaponry," says G P Singh, Inspector General of Police of the Bodoland district.

His counterpart in Guwahati, IG and police spokesperson S N Singh is even more categorical: "We suspect the role of BPF elements in the current violence" .

When four Muslims, including a child, were shot dead on the night of November 16, the police swept down on the residence of Mono Kumar Brahma, a BPF leader and a minister-rank in the ruling council.

Brahma, still in his lungi and shirt, was arrested.

The police said they found two AK47 rifles from his house.

Both his family and BPF protested that he had been framed.

After four days of curfew, the second round of violence abated.

Around 5,000 security personnel, including the Army, patrolled the area to maintain peace and mop up illegal arms.

But, after a week of cordon-and-search operations, they had only three country-made weapons to show.

Although there is no credible data, police estimate at least 100 weapons are circulating in the area.

In the past, a crackdown on those possessing weapons was difficult, say officers, because until 2011, the Congress government depended on BPF's support for survival.

While there is more political space to act now, they say, the challenges of geography and demography remain.

Kokrajhar has 90 km of international border with Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Nepal and Burma are close.

Home to diverse communities, the ethnic divide is sharp, which makes people of a community close ranks.

"If someone has weapons, no one in the village and community will squeal on him," says a senior officer in the security forces.

Not just the Bodos, other communities like Santhals, Rajbanshis, Adivasis, too have armed outfits except the Muslims.

But in the recent violence, of the 10 people killed, two were Bodos, and one of them was shot dead.

Since the weapon used was a small one, the police suspect it may have been sourced from petty Muslim criminals known to carry out armed robberies.

"So far, we do not have any information on Muslims sourcing automatic weapons," says G P Singh.

A report of National Commission for Minorities had warned that if ethnic violence continued, jihadi organisations might begin supplying weapons among local Muslims.

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