Villagers bury their kin after Gogoi ensures safety

After initial refusal, family of 18 people killed by Bodo militants buried their dead after the Assam government assured to punish the culprits and provide security to the people living in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) on Sunday.

After initial refusal, family of 18 people killed by Bodo militants buried their dead after the Assam government assured to punish the culprits and provide security to the people living in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) on Sunday.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also held a meeting with the All Bodoland Minority Students' Union and accepted their demand of arming the violence-prone villages for self-defence. The government has agreed to give 10 guns per village and also provide training to the youth.

The relatives of those massacred in Friday night's brutal attack had earlier refused to bury the dead unless the CM paid them a visit. Later, Assam Cooperation and Border Areas Development Minister Siddique Ahmed went as the CM's special representative to calm the agitated villagers. The villagers then agreed to arrange a 'janazah' – funeral—for the dead.

Assam police additional DG (law and order) AP Raut, who was also present at Narayanguri village during the Janazah, said that permanent picket of police would be set up in the village.

"Three companies of central para-military forces have already arrived in Baksa district. Three additional companies would be deployed soon, said Raut.

After the postmortem was conducted on the 18 victims on Saturday, villagers belonging to the minority community decided not to perform the last rites of the deceased until Gogoi paid them a visit.

They also alleged that some forest guards of Manas National Park in Baksa district and ex-cadres of the disbanded Bodoland Liberation Tiger (BLT) were behind the killings.