A day after the police firing killed civilians at Goalpara, another incident of firing by police took place at Sonitpur district of Assam on Tuesday killing one civilian and injuring close to 20 others.
The fresh incident took place at Baghmari near Tezpur, the district headquarters of Sonitpur in the morning as locals clashed with police after officials of a power station by the Power Grid Corporation of India limited tried to close a road through its campus, which is being used by local people.
The causality of Monday’s violence at Goalpara rose to four with two more bodies recovered by the police late last night, police said on Tuesday adding that indefinite curfew had been on in the violence-affected areas of Goalpara.
“Tension started in the area after the officials of a power station of the PGCIl wanted to close a road through its campus, which is being used by the local people of neighbouring villages. As police tried to contain the situation, the people charged at the police. Police had to resort to firing to control the situation, leading to death of one and injury of over 10 others,” State Home Secretary GD Tripathi said.
He said that there were two roads through the campus of the power station, one of which had been closed a few days back. However, after providing an alternate road, the officials tried to close this second road on Tuesday. This move infuriated the locals for some reasons and led to the incident, he added.
Meanwhile, the Home Secretary further informed that the death toll of the Goalpara violence have increased to four with the police recovering two more bodies late last night.
“Out of the total four — two of them were killed in police firing on Monday — and the other two persons were suspected to have been killed by agitated mob during the clash,” he said.
“The two bodies which were recovered late last night were not died in the police firing,” Tripathi clarified and added that while one of them was hacked to death, the other was found charred to death.
He said the indefinite curfew, which was imposed around the violence-affected areas, is on till Tuesday considering the tension in the area.