Bandh protesting Nalbari massacre disrupts life in Assam

Bandh protesting Nalbari massacre disrupts life in Assam
Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Guwahati, Nov 1: A twelve-hour bandh called by the Asom Yuva Parishad (AYP), the youth wing of the ruling Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today to register protest against the killing of nine persons at Nalbari last Friday, has disrupted normal life in Assam.

While educational institutions, banks and business establishments remained closed, very few vehicles were on the roads in Guwahati. The attendance in government offices was thin despite a stern warning by the government asking its employees to attend.

City buses and long-distance buses too were off the road, though railway trains and flights to and fro Guwahati did not remain suspended.

Meanwhile, the police have claimed a major breakthrough in the Nalbari massacre when it could arrest one Nripen Das, who had hired the vehicle that was used by the killers on that fateful evening. Das had been absconding since the day the killings took place.

Das was arrested following a statement made by the driver of the Tata Sumo (AS-14 6663), one Moinul Ali. The latter told the police about how he was asked to leave the vehicle after Nripen Das took him to a place where six to seven youths including a jeans-clad girl got into it at Paikarkuchi, about six kms from Nalbari.

Das on the other hand told the police that he had hired the vehicle from one Labanya Haloi of Teresia, a nearby village, for a sum of Rs 5,000. A sum of Rs 500 was also paid to Haloi as advance.

Subsequently, the gang, after committing the crime returned the vehicle to Nripen Das the same evening, following which Das returned it to the owner.

When the police seized the vehicle, it still had blood stains on its body apart from six live cartridges of AK-47 rifles inside it. Das, who was earlier arrested a few years ago under TADA, is stated to be having close links with the ULFA for long. Two more persons have been taken into custody by the police.