Protests connected to a demand for evictions in Assam’s West Karbi Anglong district took a violent turn Monday, with protestors setting Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council Chief Executive Member and BJP leader Tuliram Ronghang’s ancestral home in Dongkamukam on fire and pelting stones.
At least three people were injured as police resorted to force to disperse the protestors, officials said. Additional forces including CRPF and police commandos were rushed to the site Monday evening and the West Karbi Anglong district administration imposed prohibitory orders citing “apprehension that certain individuals or groups may create trouble, thereby causing disturbance of public peace and tranquillity and may also pose a threat to the life and property of general public”.
West Karbi Anglong, a tribal majority hill district, comes under the jurisdiction of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, which governs it under the provisions of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The tensions in the district are connected by a hunger strike that had been undertaken for the past two weeks by nine individuals at Phelangpi in West Karbi Anglong demanding evictions in PGR and VGR lands in the council’s area, a long-standing demand by Karbi tribal bodies.
The tensions flared after the protestors on hunger strike were taken away from their protest strike in Phelangpi earlier Monday. IGP (Law and Order) Akhilesh Singh said that they were taken to Guwahati for “medical reasons as their condition could deteriorate after 15 days of being on hunger strike.”
After the incidents of violence, Ronghang, speaking to the media, said that this was “misunderstood” as an arrest.
“We do not object to them going on hunger strike but the matter has to be resolved through discussions, which is what we told them as well… I had asked them to come to discuss the matter in Diphu and today at 4 pm, we were supposed to talk to them in the Council conference room,” he said.
He further said: “But yesterday, police took some of them for treatment to Gauhati Medical College. In people’s minds there has been misapprehension that they have been removed and arrested”.
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This fuelled unrest in the area, which culminated in protesters setting fire to CEM Ronghang’s home in Donkamukam. According to authorities, he has not been living there and is currently based in Karbi Anglong district headquarter Diphu.
“They set fire to the CEM’s ancestral home and force was used to disperse the crowd. This is in Donkamokam and that situation was brought under control by late afternoon. But after that, trouble started at Kheroni where crowds started pelting stones near the police station there and trying to attack people from other communities, such as Biharis and Nepalis. Additional forces have rushed in. We have also called CRPF and commandos and are dominating the area,” said IGP Singh.
In February 2024, Ronghang had announced that it would conduct evictions in reserved grazing lands in Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong, following days of agitation by Karbi tribal bodies. He had said then that there are 1983 families of “illegal settlers” on PGR and VGR lands in just the Hawaipur mouza under the Donkamokam circle in West Karbi Anglong district, and that there were 103 families encroaching on grazing lands in the Phuloni circle. The protests at that time had been sparked by a Bihari Nonia community outfit submitting a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu, which included a demand for the legalisation of settlers on these lands in West Karbi Anglong.
However, evictions were not carried out there. Ronghang said this was because of an ongoing PIL in the Gauhati High Court.
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“We have taken a decision with all parties and organisations to conduct evictions there in the PGR VGR lands. We gave eviction notice to the people settled there to leave within 15 days. But after giving the notice, the settlers there have given a PIL in the high court. That is ongoing. If we do evictions now, we will be in contempt of court,” he said.
