BJP alleges PFI behind Gorukhuti incident, PFI rejects charge

The BJP Friday alleged that various forces, including Popular Front of India (PFI) could have instigated protesters to attack Assam Police personnel, which escalated to a police firing claiming two lives in Gorukhuti village near Mangaldai town in Darrang district on Thursday.

The charge was however strongly denied by the Assam unit of PFI which said it has no cadre or member in Gorukhuti area.

BJP national general secretary Dilip Saikia also indicated that the action taken against protesters was not severe enough.

''I feel the police action was very less on Thursday. At least 500 protestors should have been injured, though I will never want anyone to die,'' he told reporters here. BJP also voiced doubts about the citizenship status of protestors and the evicted people and hinted that the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) for the state, which is yet to be notified, could be revisited and the voter list reviewed on the basis of a ''correct NRC''.

Two persons were killed and 20 others, including policemen, were injured when police tried to evict encroachers at Gorukhuti and other villages under Sipajhar revenue circle in Darrang district on Thursday.

A shocking video showing a man slinging a camera and hitting an apparently dead person with a bullet wound on his chest surfaced after the incident. Public protest had erupted over the demand for rehabilitation of 800 families who had been evicted from state-owned land where they had been living for decades.

“At Gorukhuti we have observed a pattern similar to PFI’s way of functioning. The outfit aims to only create unrest,” Saikia, who is also the Darrang MP told reporters here.

The clash between the police and the protestors was an ''evil design'' by suspected Bangladeshis in the state who were instigated and supported by outside forces in their attack on the police, he maintained.

''Other political and apolitical organisations could be behind the preplanned incident. The facts will be gradually unravelled during investigation,'' Saikia said.

The Assam government has announced an inquiry by a retired Gauhati High Court judge into the incident.

Assam PFI president Abu Shama Ahmed called BJP MP's allegation ''completely false''.

''Our organisation has no member or cadre in Gorukuti. None from our organisation has visited the area,” he told PTI when contacted.

“We work for the empowerment of the downtrodden, but BJP does not want that all sections are empowered.

''BJP is backed by RSS, everyone knows it. Both of them are communal and want to polarize people for their own benefit,'' Ahmed said.

Saikia said BJP has been demanding a ''correct NRC'' and will take measures to ''detect, delete and deport illegal citizens from Assam when the time is right''.

To a question whether the voter list of the area would be reviewed, he said that such an exercise ''could be undertaken at the right time.'' BJP state chief Bhabesh Kalita also alleged that there was a “pre-planned move” to gather people from outside and attack the police.

“BJP fully supports the state government in the eviction of doubtful citizens,'' he said.

The encroachers were given due notice to clear out of the land and were even offered rehabilitation elsewhere, which was refused by them, Kalita said.

BJP MLAs Mrinal Saikia and Paramanda Rajbongshi, who are members of a committee formed by the state government for undertaking a community farming project in the cleared land, echoed the party's senior leaders.

The local people are cooperating with the government and ''outside forces'' had led Thursday’s incident, they said.

AIUDF president Badruddin Ajmal condemned the incident and demanded adequate rehabilitation for the evicted people.

He urged the government to adopt a humane approach and ensure that those who lost their kin in the incident are compensated.

Senior Congress spokesperson Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee held the government responsible for the incident. “It is an established fact that the saffron party is against a religious minority. But whoever is in power, it is their constitutional duty to protect every citizen.” The eviction drive in Sipajhar revenue circle is being carried out to clear alleged encroached land for a community farming project on over 9,364 hectares in the area.

On the first day of the exercise on September 20, a total 602 hectares was cleared and 800 families evicted. On the second day on September 23 more than 666 hectares was cleared and 600 families evicted, the BJP said.