Guwahati, Dec 23: After three months of Assam’s Dhalpur eviction drive incident, where two villagers were killed and several others injured in a police firing which had made national and international headlines, a fact finding team of Centre for Minority Studies, Research and Development, Assam has submitted their findings on the basis of research.
A 14-member committee team was formed under senior journalist and human rights activist Zamser Ali on behalf of Centre for Minority Studies, Research and Development, Assam. The team stayed for 15 days to find out the answers to the allegations made by the present BJP government of Assam.
“The answers the team tried to find were not based on mere oral statements, but on facts, figures and documents. The intention of the investigation was neither to defend someone nor to defame anyone. The only intention of it was to bring the truth before the nation. It was taken up with a view to breaking the myth and assumptions about the poor people of Dhalpur,” said Zamser Ali, general secretary, Centre for Minority Studies, Research and Development, Assam.
He said, “As per government sources, 960 families were evicted. While surveying the area, the team collected all necessary documents in order to meet each family head in person. However, a small number of the poorest family heads could not be contacted, since they moved out of their houses in search of livelihood. These families are left out of the survey.”
“On some occasions, two notices were served to the same joint family. The team consciously avoided dividing a large family living jointly but receiving more than one eviction notices. The constraint of time was another limiting factor for the team. Thus, the team could cover 517 families. It gathered information of 21 categories along with all supporting documents. All this information has been compiled and furnished in this report.We hope, this report will help to uncover the reality of Dhalpur as well as the false and phoney propaganda of the Sangh Pariwar and the present BJP led government of Assam,” he said.
“The Deputy Commissioner of Darrang, who was present in the process, barely assured the representatives from the village that she would communicate with the competent government authority regarding allotment of a certain size of land to the evicted families. Though the discussion was fruitless, the villagers pulled out of the protest at about 1 p.m. and made their way home so that they could demolish their houses at the earliest, and arrange a roof for the night. Unfortunately, however, the police started to beat these people on their way back home. At one point, the villagers were furious, leading to some sporadic clashes between them and the police,” Ali stated in the fact finding report.
The report further stated, “The police, without trying to normalize the situation, opened fire on the villagers. This uncalled-for, unwarranted police firing took two lives on the spot. Forty-three people were injured, among them 10 received bullet injuries. On the other side, 14 policemen were injured during this operation.”
