ULFA(I) warns ‘outsiders’ over FIR against radical leader in Assam
The alleged assault of a girl, an arm wrestler, by two men in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar has become a major controversy with a BJP leader filing an FIR and the ULFA(I) issuing a threat
The alleged assault of a 17-year-old girl, an arm wrestler, in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar town on August 13 has snowballed into a major row with the extremist United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) issuing a threat against ‘outsiders’.
On Monday, the ULFA(I) said it will target ‘outsiders’ if a Bharatiya Janata Party functionary did not withdraw an FIR he had filed against the Shrinkhal Chaliha, leader of the radical outfit Bir Lachit Sena. The FIR was lodged at the Dispur police station in Guwahati, about 360 km west of Sivasagar.
The BJP’s Gaurav Somani filed the FIR against Mr. Chaliha for “spewing venom against the Marwari, Bhojpuri, Bengali and other communities residing in Assam” and for “threatening to close various social, religious, and community-based organisations”.
The FIR was based on videos during a protest by members of some 30 organisations against the assault of the minor girl in the Babu Patty area of Sivasagar. Protests were also staged in the town on Monday.
Accusing Mr. Chaliha of promoting “a feeling of enmity on the grounds of language and race”, Mr. Somani said the members of the “Marwari community are also proud members of the Assamese community” and bids to “break the social fabric” should be nipped in the bud.
The ULFA(I) saw the FIR as an affront to the indigenous people of Assam. In a statement, it said the “outsiders” living in Assam would face a “grave situation” if the FIR was not withdrawn. The outfit said staging democratic protests against the assault of a local girl by a group of non-Assamese businessmen was the moral right of some organisations and people.
Earlier, the police in Sivasagar arrested the two men for their alleged involvement in the assault case.
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