Date:15/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/15/stories/2008081557711500.htm

National

1 killed as bandh supporters, Bodo traders clash

Special Correspondent

Guwahati: One person was killed and seven others were injured in a clash between supporters of an Assam bandh called by a Muslim student body, on the one hand, and Bodo traders, on the other, at Routa in Udalguri district under the Bodoland Territorial Council on Thursday. Additional forces were deployed in the area to prevent a communal flare-up.

Subhash Das, Principal Secretary, Home, told The Hindu that the situation was under control, though tension still gripped the area.

The bandh was called by the Muslim United Students Association to protest against harassment of the community in the name of detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants by various organisations and individuals. Clashes broke out in the forenoon when bandh supporters tried to forcibly close down shops at the Routa weekly market.

Heated exchanges between the traders and the bandh supporters resulted in the two groups resorting to violence.

Police later recovered a body from the Routa area. Barring in the minority pockets in lower and northern Assam, the bandh did not have any impact.

Meanwhile, leaders and activists of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) began a 24-hour hunger strike in the city to protest non-implementation of the Assam Accord and the government’s failure to detect and deport illegal Bangladeshi migrants and check infiltration from across the border.