We share the agony and anguish with the Hon’ble member and also condemn the brutal attack on the people. But this is not the first time that this has happened. Someone has said that in December, 2014 such incident took place in that particular area of Kokrajhar and more than 70 people were killed and many injured.
There is 21 percent Bengali Muslim population in that district, bordering West Bengal, particularly in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal. During December, 2014 hundreds of villagers had to free to Cooch Behar district of West Bengal and our Hon’ble Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had to arrange for their shelter, foods, medical treatments etc. Now again this has happened and one of the Ministers from Assam is on record saying that it was not a planned attack. That is why Government did not have any information and the security forces reached the spot half an hour or one hour after the incident took place and this is why they could not prevent the incident.
But, Sir, this is not an isolated incident. This Kokrajhar district has suffered since long and the so-called Bodo agitation has going on and after the peace agreement of 2005, when people thought that everything will be improved. But again this is happening.
The clarification that I would like to seek from the Hon’ble Minister is that whether it is a case of intelligence failure. If that is the case, whether the Government of India is advising the State Government to take appropriate steps for improving the intelligence mechanism together with the Central Government to combat recurrence of such incidents in future in a diligent manner.
