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As families mourn dead, hundreds take to streets
Dipanjas Das, 21, and Sam Stafford, 17, succumbed to their injuries shortly after being shot during clashes against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Guwahati on Thursday evening, but their families said the duo didn’t deserve to die.
Anger simmered in Assam’s capital city of Guwahati on Friday as hundreds turned up to mourn the deaths of two men who died during violent protests against India’s new citizenship laws a day ago.
Dipanjas Das, 21, and Sam Stafford, 17, succumbed to their injuries shortly after being shot during clashes against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Guwahati on Thursday evening, but their families said the duo didn’t deserve to die.
“He was never a part of anything wrong, and never indulged in any violence. Yet, he was shot and we lost him,” said his mother, Mamoni, shortly after his funeral.
Hundreds of protesters showed up during the funeral procession that was fronted with Stafford’s photo affixed to a cross, and atop a small truck packed with family members and relatives.
In neighbouring Chhaygaon in Kamrup district, many people accompanied the family of Das for his last rites. Das, a worker at the local army canteen, was declared dead the previous night at the Guwahati Medical College.
The two deaths are the first casualties in the swirling protests against the CAA that has emerged as a lightening rod in the region.
On Friday, they appeared to galvanise activist groups who called for peace and appeared to tamp down on passions that were running high since mobs of protesters went on a rampage in Guwahati on Wednesday, torching buses, clashing with police, burning tyres, blocking roads and uprooting road dividers.
“We have to ensure that we have a peaceful protest at all time, that it is democratic,” said Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the general secretary of the All Assam Students Union that is leading the protests.
At a massive rally held by the protesters in Chandmari on Friday, Das and Stafford came up repeatedly with speakers vowing to never forget their sacrifice.
“Too many of our men have died trying to save Assam’s culture and glory from the invasion of outsiders that the CAA is trying to permit. We have to ensure that those two boys did not die in vain,” said Rudra,a protester who old gave one name. Protesters across the north-east believe that the CAA, which fast-tracks citizenship for Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Christian, Parsi and Jain faiths from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, will allow an influx of migrants into the region.
“They are all illegal immigrants. Why should they be given citizenship? It will cause immense damage to our culture, to our language,” said Ratul Goswami, a protester.
Across the city, a phalanx of army and paramilitary personnel fanned out into arterial and narrow neighbourhood roads on Friday to contain any violence. A senior official in the security establishment said the state had asked for 20 companies of paramilitary forces and 26 columns [One column has 70 soldiers] of the Indian Army, the aforementioned official said. “The situation is much better than what it was yesterday,” he added.
A state government official said no inquiry has been ordered so far in the incident.
A top Assam police official said 24 people were injured in Thursday’s violence. “They fired in self protection. For the protection of property of the state,” said the official. Three others are said to be in critical condition at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.
Ramen Talukdar, the superintendent at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, said the institution had received one fresh patient with bullet injuries on Friday, taking the number up to 27. He also appealed to the protesters to not target essential services. “For example, the continuous supply of oxygen to the hospital should not be disrupted,” he added.
As evening rolled into the night, some shops remained open for the first time in almost a week, and people could be seen frantically stoking up on essentials and food. Their only hope: A quick restoration of the internet and the end of a period that the city has not witnessed in over 30 years.
