By our correspondent
Agartala, January 09, 2019: Situation in violence hit Madhab Bari in West Tripura district is limping back to normalcy. Violence broke out yesterday (Jan 08, 2019) during NESO sponsored 11-hour shut down protesting against Modi Government’s move to table Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Parliament. In the violence 6 persons were critically injured and one of them was air-lifted to Kolkata today for treatment.
SP West Ajit Pratap Singh said, “The overall situation is under control now — there was no report of any untoward incident at Madhavbari today. The security personnel are still patrolling in the tension-hit area and the prohibitory order under section 144 of Cr.PC is still in force”. Notably, Ranir Bazar police today recovered a country-made pistol from Madhab Bari.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill seeks to grant citizenship to minorities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan – Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Christian people. In Northeast NESO is spearheading agitation against the Bill arguing the if the Bill is being passed it would undermine the Assam Accord which identified 1971 as base year for identifying ‘foreigners’ – mainly came into the NE Region from Bangladesh.
Protesting the Bill, Tripura Students’ Federation – partner of NESO called 11-hour strike in ADC areas in Tripura. As the TSF staged a road blockade along the vital Assam-Agartala NH, tension started escalating. Administration – in an attempt to disperse crowd and clear the NH, clamped Section 144, but the move failed. Later, Police lathi charged, fired tear gas and used water canons which also proved futile. At last, Police resorted to firing in which six persons were injured. Section 144 is still in force in the area.
- Meanwhile, Joint Action Committee of Civil Society strongly condemned the incident of firing at Madhab Bari yesterday. The committee demanded Judicial Investigation of the incident under High Court, said secretary general of Barak People’s Organization Anthony Debbarma at a press meet organized at Agartala Press Club today.
- Tripura Student Federation (TSF) – a partner of NESO – also demanded CBI probe into the incidence. In a separate press meet, TYFI State secretary Amalendu Debbarma raised similar demand and batted for high-level investigation into firing incidence.
- Aghore Debbarma of IPFT ( Tipraha) expressed concern over yesterday’s incidences. He said, IPFT (Tipraha) would observe the day as Black Day in every year. He demanded resignation of Revenue Minister N.C. Debbarma and Tribal Welfare Mebar Kumar Jamatia as well as other tribal MLAs to save existence of tribal people.
