Non-Dimasas petition chief minister
By Sarat Sarma
Members of the Indigenous Women Forum participate in the rally at Haflong on Friday.
Nagaon, Apr 24 : More than 3,000 supporters of the Indigenous Women Forum took out a rally in Haflong today demanding immediate geographical bifurcation of Dima Hasao district, formerly known as North Cachar Hills district.
The protesters later submitted a memorandum to chief minister Tarun Gogoi through Dima Hasao deputy commissioner Dilip Borthakur.
Other demands of the forum include a high-level inquiry into police firing on the picketers of the Indigenous Peoples Forum and the Indigenous Students Forum on April 9 and adequate compensation to the five persons who had sustained bullet injuries.
“Our innocent picketers had to be the victims of a pre-planned political conspiracy engineered by a group with vested interest to derail our democratic struggle for a separate district,” senior Indigenous Peoples Forum leader A. Langthang said over phone.
“We hope a geographical bifurcation of the district and a Sixth Schedule status for the newly floated one would bring peace and development to the district. Our struggle would continue till the legitimate demand is not fulfilled,” the general secretary of the Indigenous Women Forum, Bethsy Singson, said.
These organizations, basically representing the non-Dimasa communities, were floated just after Dispur announced the new name of the district.
On April 9, the forums called a 24-hour district bandh.
Dima Hasao superintendent of police V.K. Ramisetti and additional superintendent of police A. Sinha were seriously injured when picketers threw stones at the police team that reached the spot where they were attempting to make their bandh successful.
The police later opened fire on the picketers in which five of them were seriously injured.
“We hope the chief minister would feel the situation in the hill district. We want a fruitful solution to all our problems from his end at the earliest,” Singson said.
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