With 'mass suicide' attempt, Assam SPOs send police into a tizzy

The SPOs, who were dismissed from services in 2015 but have for long been demanding their jobs back, had asserted last week that they would commit the mass suicide.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal | PTI
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal | PTI

GUWAHATI: The police and paramilitary forces in Guwahati were on Monday sent into a tizzy by around 300 special police officers (SPOs) who had swarmed the new Saraighat bridge over the Brahmaputra to commit “mass suicide”.

The SPOs, who were dismissed from services in 2015 but have for long been demanding their jobs back, had asserted last week that they would commit the mass suicide by jumping into the mighty river from Saraighat.

During the purported suicide attempt, the SPOs were seen taking off their uniform and running helter-skelter until being overpowered by the personnel of police and paramilitary forces who brought them to one place on the bridge. But, soon they disrupted the movement of vehicular traffic by squatting on the busy bridge. 

Initially, the SPOs demanded an audience with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at the site until scaling down from the demand.

“We are giving a deadline of May 5 to the state government. The Chief Minister will have to meet us and settle the issue by then. If not, we will carry out the mass suicide anywhere in Guwahati,” a leader of the SPOs warned.

“During our meetings in the past, the top bureaucrats gave us several dates committing that we will be absorbed in the battalions of Assam Industrial Security Force (AISF) but nothing has happened on the ground. We don’t trust them anymore. We want the Chief Minister to settle the issue,” he said.

Assam’s Principal Secretary (Home) LS Changsan, who is reportedly dealing with the issue, was not available for a comment.

Back in 2008, some 900 SPOs were recruited in temporary posts in the Assam police. While a section of them was assigned duties in insurgency-affected areas, particularly in erstwhile NC Hills (now Dima Hasao) and Kokrajhar districts, others were engaged in security duties for the East-West Corridor highway project. During the discharge of duties, around 50 of them were either killed or injured fighting the militants or debilitated due to diseases. 

In 2015, they got the shock of their life when the then Congress government dismissed them without any notice. Over the past three years since, they have staged a series of protests demanding they be absorbed in the AISF battalions but the issue remains unresolved till date. 

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