First person
Angsuma Narzary, lecturer
Staying in a relief camp set up at a school in Kokrajhar district
College was closed for summer and lecturer Angsuma Narzary came back home on July 15, to family and friends in the Bodo community of Gaorungtari village in Dhubri district bordering Kokrajhar district.
Barely a week into Narzary’s break, the Bodo-Muslim ethnic violence engulfed his village in Bilasipara sub-division. “On the night of July 23, a mob started torching houses in Bodo villages. We villagers of Gaorungtari fled to a relief camp set up at Hatimathah Serang High School in Kokrajhar. Residents of five Bodo villages of Bilasipara are taking shelter here. We lost our belongings and houses,” said Narzary.
Gaorungtari villagers, however, were lucky because they had been forewarned — by none other than Muslims living in villages nearby. “Some of them had warned us on the day of the attack that outsiders from their community might attack Bodo villages,” said Narzary.
According to Narzary, life in the relief camp has been terribly difficult for all the uprooted people.
“There has been a shortage of food and virtually no sanitation facility. The administration has not provided any medical attention to people at the camp.”
{{/usCountry}}“There has been a shortage of food and virtually no sanitation facility. The administration has not provided any medical attention to people at the camp.”
{{/usCountry}}On Thursday, the All Bodo Students Union provided some relief material to the camp.