Students Protest in Multiple Cities Against Assam Killings

NEW DELHI, 26 Sep 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO), alongwith other groups, has started nationwide protests against the gruesome killings of two Muslims in Darrang district of Assam by the state police.

Following a nationwide protest call by SIO, agitations were held in various parts of the country including Delhi, Kolkata (West Bengal), Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh), Darbhanga (Bihar), Nagpur (Maharashtra) and several places in Kerala. The organisation has demanded swift action against the police personnel involved in the violent attack on the Muslims displaced from their homes.

“The cold-blooded killing of two Muslims, and the desecration of one of the deceased’s body, shows the cruel and communal face of the fascist Hindutva state. The targetted witch hunt of minorities, especially Muslims, by the state and the encouragement given to ‘fringe’ and vigilante groups by state agencies, marks a disturbing slide in the security situation in Assam”, said Mohammad Salman Ahmad, National President, SIO.

He added, “The Himanta Biswa Sharma administration is using every trick in the book to systematically marginalize, aleniate and disenfranchise the Muslim population in the state. In the process, it appears successful in polarising a large section of the society, including the police force.”

Ever since the BJP has come to power in Assam, it has started eviction of thousands of people in areas dominated by those from the minority community. The 900 families evicted in Darrang district urgently need food, shelter and legal assistance. Instead, the state unleashed terror on then, killing two and injuring several others.

“It’s the legal and moral responsibility of the state government to rehabilitate more displaced families in Darrang district and elsewhere. The United Nations has recognised protection against forced evictions and the arbitrary destruction and demolition of one’s home as an important human rights. The Supreme The Supreme Court of India, in several judgements, has also held that adequate housing is a fundamental right emanating from the right to life protected by the Constitution,” said Salman Ahmad.

SIO has demanded that the state government must ensure that justice is delivered to the vicitms by punishing the concerned officials and police officers behind such a cruel attack. The organisation also demanded that the report of the judicial enquiry is made public as soon as possible and compensation of Rs 1 Crore each to the families of the two deceased and Rs 50 lakh each to the seriously injured.

“They passed tens of laws that allow them to take away Palestinian land or prevent Palestinians from using it, while seeming to be doing all this under the pretext of democratic regulations.”

He said that, in addition to confiscating state land or land of absentee Palestinians, the favorite way of stunting Palestinian growth had been the conversion of large areas of Palestinian land into nature reserves.

“Using military order 363 of 1969, the Israeli civil administration can declare any land in the occupied West Bank a nature reserve where it is extremely difficult to get a building license.”

In Jan. 2020 then-Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who is now prime minister, approved the declaration of seven reserves in an area of 112.5 square kilometers, in addition to the existing 12 nature reserves aimed at stopping any Palestinian building development in the Jordan Valley area.