Families Reluctant to Return to Site of Mayhem in Assam

The villagers do not want to take any chance as they apprehend that security will be withdrawn after the 'situation becomes normal'.
Families Reluctant to Return to Site of Mayhem in Assam

It is a difficult  situation for Safikul Islam. He wants to go back to his village but his wife and mother are unwilling to risk the family's life as they witnessed the mayhem in front of their eyes.

The district administration is doing everything possible to instill a sense of security and confidence among affected families by providing adequate forces, but the villagers do not want to take any chance as they apprehend that security will be withdrawn after the 'situation becomes normal'.

"I want to go back and start everything again if the situation becomes normal.But my wife and mother are not willing to go. They themselves saw the attack and how brutally people were killed.Even infants were not spared," Islam (26) told PTI here.

Islam's family, comprising his wife, two sons, one brother and mother, is among the five-odd families that did not suffer any casualty in the mayhem.

All the six members are now taking shelter in the relief camp at Bhangarpar market.

"We were attacked by miscreants and when we went to the forest guards for help, they also fired at us.It is very sad that these forest guards lived with us in the village and we shared everything with them. We celebrated all festivals together and they are regularly treated by us at our homes," he alleged.

Islam is now thinking to shift to a completely new  location if the government is willing to rehabilitate them.

But a senior district administration official said there is no such policy of rehabilitating the victims to a new place.

"I do not want to go back.I am scared that they will come again. They came earlier also in 1994. We stayed back, now you see what happened to us," Islam's mother Romila Khatun (45) said.

Similar sentiment was echoed by other inmates also at the relief camp, set up on the east side of the Beki river.

The attack took place in Narayanguri and Khagrabari villages on the other side of the river.

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