Indefinite curfew was imposed and Army was called in to Suwalkuchi, a small township near Assam’s capital city Guwahati after a group of weaver and local people clashed with security forces on Saturday leading to injury of seven persons including two policemen.
Suwalkuchi, located about 30 kms away from Guwahati, is known as the Manchester of the East for production of a valuable silk - pat silk (also known as Assam silk) and most of the villagers live by rearing silk worms and weaving cloths with the famous silk.
A clash broke out on Saturday between a group of local weavers and the security forces after the former tried to set ablaze cloths made of Banarasi silk, which was imported to the area from Banaras by some traders and wholesalers.
The local weavers had been alleging that a section of traders and wholesalers import the machine made cloth made of Banarasi silk to Suwalkuchi and sale them in the name of Assam silk, thereby affecting the local weavers. The import of Banarasi silk has hit the local weavers hard as cloths made of Banarasi silk comes cheaper than those made of Assam silk.
The problem first started on Friday after some local weavers snatched the Banarasi silk products from shops and houses of wholesalers and set them on fire. Police had to resort to blank firing to control the situation.
“A group of weavers gathered on Saturday and wanted to set on fire some Banarasi silk products. However, the security forces tried to stop them and the situation went violent. The people attacked the security forces with stones forcing them to first fire tear gas shells and then bullets. A total of five civilians were injured during the incident,” said Kamrup district Deputy Commissioner SK Roy.
“Two policemen including a constable and a senior official were also injured during the mob attack,” Roy said adding that indefinite
curfew was imposed and Army was called in to assist the police.
Out of the five injured civilians, the conditions of three were stated to be serious and they had been rushed to Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for better treatment.
