Shattered by violence in Assam, brothers just cry, ask for missing parents

Nazrul, 6, and his brother Rafiqul, 3, did not know what was happening when gunmen dressed in army fatigues invaded their village in Assam on July 22 and set houses on fire before going on a shooting spree. Over 100 hours after the gruesome attack in Chirang district under the Bodoland Territorial Administered Districts, the brothers have been asking just one question: “Where are our parents? Take us to them.”

The children were separated from their parents when the family was running for life that day. “Around 20 gunmen came to our village Bhatipara Kauniabhasa and asked us to vacate. The gunmen fired indiscriminately while we ran for our lives. Those who were lucky survived,” said Muntar Ali, 60, a friend of the boys’ father Naushad Ali, a daily wage-earner.

Sitting at a relief camp in Bongaigaon district, which falls between the restive Kokrajhar and Chirang districts, Muntar said Naushad and his wife perhaps fell to the bullets. Muntar said he found Nazrul and Rafiqul on the bank of a river which was the escape route for the villagers.

“I found the boys crying on the riverbank. I took them with me and swam across with help from others,” he said. He tried to inquire about their parents, but in vain. Their names did not figure in the list of people lodged in various relief camps.

The incident has shattered the brothers. Chocolates and toys are of no help. “They cry most of the time. When they talk, they only ask about their parents,” inmates at the relief camp said. “I have lost all hope, but it is my duty to look after them since I rescued them. I have decided to keep them with me for the rest of my life,” said Muntar, also a daily wage-earner.  

An estimated 8,000 people are lodged in two relief camps on the outskirts of Bongaigaon town. Most have lost near and dear ones.

One youngster lost his father, a woman her only son. Mehar Banu, 35, of Kurshakathi village in Kokrajhar district lost her mother, sister, two brothers, son and daughter-in-law.

Fear of violence and guns has gripped the villagers so much that they feel insecure even at the relief camps in the absence of security personnel.

The camps in Bongaigaon are in a shambles. There is an acute shortage of food, especially baby food and potable water. The Bidyapur relief camp has been open since July 22, but inmates say they are yet to get a day’s material. Health-care services are missing. There are only a couple of lavatories in each camp forcing people to defecate in the open.

The inmates include some 20 pregnant women and over 100 children. The All-Assam Minority Students’ Union fears that if the situation does not improve, the inmates would die of starvation and lack of medical aid.

Meanwhile, JN Choudhury, Assam’s director general of police, said there was a strong probability of militants being involved in the violence.