While trouble-torn Bodoland Territorial Council areas returning to normal, polarisation against immigrants has intensified outside BTC areas and Upper Assam districts. Hundreds in Upper Assam’s Jorhat took out a huge march urging residents not to hire Bangladeshi workers.
They demanded these immigrants be identified and deported.
Seven more bodies were, meanwhile, recovered, raising the statewide toll to 95, while a new district, Sontipur in central Assam, was brought under indefinite curfew.
Two bodies were recovered from Dhemaji and five others from Dhubri, Chirang, Baksa and Kokrajhar districts late Tuesday night and early Wednesday. The victims were relief camp refugees.
The state government has called for a ban on bandhs for a month. It directed all deputy commissioners to enforce recent guidelines by the Supreme Court and Gauhati high court prohibiting bandhs. State home secretary Gynendra Tripathi told this newspaper: “We instructed all deputy commissioners to take strict action against organisations calling bandhs in the state.”