Fresh violence in lower Assam, one person killed, 2 injured

DHUBRI/KOKRAJHAR: Fresh incidents of violence today rocked strife-torn Lower Assam districts leaving one person dead in Dhubri and two injured in Kokrajhar even as protestors blocked a national highway in the state.

Police said that a body with injury marks was found in Sukhanjora village under the Bogribari police station area in Dhubri district this morning, taking the toll in the violence since July 19 to 87.

The person, who was killed, was missing since yesterday. As the news of the recovery of the body spread, angry protestors blocked the NH-31 at Matrijhora. The police later took the body for postmortem and the blockade was lifted.

Two persons, including a woman, were attacked by unidentified miscreants near Salakati railway station in Kokrajhar district, police said. The injured have been admitted to Bongaigaon Civil Hospital.

After a brief lull, violence had returned to Chirang district last evening when bodies of six persons, all relief camp inmates of Rajpara, were foumd at Amguri Bazar.

In Kokrajhar, curfew was relaxed from 4 AM to 9 PM, following which the Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF) suspended its indefinite bandh which it had called in protest against the arrest of its Kokrajhar (West) MLA Pradip Brahma for allegedly inciting riots.

Night curfew was, however, continuing in the troubled districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri and the army carried out patrol of the sensitive areas in these districts.

Violence has hit the Bodoland Territorial Administered Districts and Dhubri since July 19. More than four lakh people had taken shelter in relief camps at the peak of violence and, at present, there are nearly 2.5 lakh inmates in 222 relief camps.