Letters

Abduction and Murder
Piki Das (27), S/0 Sandhya Das & Biswanath Das, a resident of Jubilee Road, Uttar Baluchar, Malda Town, was picked up by two men coming on a motorbike on 23/07/2012 at around 5 PM when Piki was standing before his house. At that time his mother was not present at her home. Asked by the neighbours, the two men disclosed their identity as policemen (in plain clothes) from Englishbazar Police Station (EBPS), Malda. The next day Piki was found dead in the District Hospital, Malda.

According to the eye witnesses, Piki was pulled by the two men on a rickshaw standing near his house. Piki's mother says that some men saw Piki to be forced into a jeep waiting quite a distance apart with the support of some other men supposed to be policemen.

At around 6 PM, a white police van reached the District Hospital, Malda from which Piki was taken out to the ground. Police then ordered a boy to bring a stretcher and get the patient admitted to the hospital. The order was carried out. The policemen then fled without keeping any record of their involvement.

The Police is now denying all allegations against them and say that Piki was not at all picked up by police; he had himself consumed poison to commit suicide.

Piki was a 'writer' by profession who used to write for those who cannot write for themselves the complaints to be lodged at the EBPS.

Piki's mother said that he had fled to Kolkata a few days back as some police personnel had been threatening over telephone of killing him since some days before. He had returned home on the very 23r July, the day he was lifted, and called a policeman over telephone asking for help. Piki also informed the policeman that he had been writing a diary since some time mentioning the illegal activities taking place at the EBPS along with the names of the police officers involved (including one ASI) who were threatening him to kill. Shortly after that, Piki was nabbed by the police of the EBPS.

The next day, some Showkat Ali, a lawyer's clerk by profession and a police agent, asked Piki's mother at Malda Court (of law) to bring in Piki's diary, ID card and Rs 2000/- to get her son back in bail. Piki's mother immediately rushed to the Court at around 1-30 PM and met Showkat. He then snatched the diary from her and informed that her son died at the District Hospital. She then went to the Hospital morgue to find her son's dead body.

APDR fact finding team suggests that :
1)  Piki's death is a cold blooded murder.
2)  The murder has been committed to suppress some facts which Piki could come to know.

Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), Malda

Conflict in Assam
More than 40 people have been killed and nearly 2 lakh people have been rendered homeless in the ethnic violence of Assam.

Whatever may be the immediate cause of the violence, the fact is that lower Assam has been turned into an area of permanent ethnic tension by conceding the demand of the Bodo chauvinists. The Bodos constitute nearly 20% of the population in the area marked under Bodo Territorial Authority. The other 80% are Koch-Rajbanshis, Santhals, Muslims, Bengali Hindus and some Assamese speaking people. In the BTA council, the Bodos have been given overwhelming majority of seats. Peace cannot be bought in any area by allowing 20% of the population to rule over 80% of the people. It is not only the Muslims who have been systematically attacked by the Bodo chauvinists. In 1996, the Bodo chauvinists led by NDFB (an armed Bodo outfit) killed 400 Santhals in one day. The: Rajbanshis are as much sons of the soil as the Bodos but they, too, have been targets of attack. The Bengali speaking Muslims had come to Assam some 150 to 100 years back. They have contributed to the development of agriculture in Assam in a big way. The story of millions of Bangladeshi immigrants entering Assam everyday is a myth propagated by the Assamese chauvinists and their mentors in Delhi.

The CPI(ML) PCC, opposed the formation of BTA in its present form and demanded a form of autonomy in which the Bodos, the Rajbanshis, the Santhals, the Muslims and Bengali Hindus enjoy equality of staus and equal rights. The CPI(ML) demands immediate restoration of peace after which a round-table conference should be convened to start a dialogue with all communities.

Santosh Rana, General Secretary
CPI(ML), PCC

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 7, Aug 26-Sep1, 2012