One person was killed and several, including police personnel, were injured on Thursday morning after police opened fire during violent clashes between protesters and the authorities at the site of a massive eviction drive that took place in Assam’s Goalpara district last week.
An eviction drive to clear 140 hectares of forest land in the Paikan Reserve Forest in Goalpara district had been conducted on July 12, in which the homes of around 1,080 families had been bulldozed. The eviction had taken place without incident. Even after the eviction, many of the affected families continued to live at the site in makeshift arrangements, such as tarpaulin tents, stating that they had nowhere else to go.
On Thursday morning, these affected families had a violent confrontation with police and forest forces when the authorities came to remove these structures.
“The forest team and police were doing routine patrolling in the evicted area, and the locals attacked people on official duty. Around 10 constables were injured, and there has also been property damage, which we are taking stock of. They had to use force to disperse the people, which included firing. In that, three of the locals were hit by bullets. One of them has died, and two others are under treatment,” said IGP (Law & Order) Akhilesh Singh. The person who died has been identified as Shakwar Ali.
Around 1,000 security personnel were deployed during the eviction drive. “After the eviction, we had withdrawn some of the forces. Now we have mobilised additional forces. The forest and police teams have been coming into conflict with the locals when they try to close entry routes to the eviction site,” he said.
The Goalpara eviction was the latest in a series of evictions conducted in the state over the past month, affecting four districts, where over 3,300 people have been evicted. This week, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated that around 50,000 people have been evicted from approximately 160 square kilometres of land since his government took office in 2021.
