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At least five persons were injured, one of them critically, when police fired rubber bullets at an unauthorised rally by the All Koch-Rajbongshi Students’ Union in Basugaon in western Assam’s Chirang district while a bandh called by a militant outfit shutdown the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Councilarea in Assam on Tuesday.
Thousands of supporters of AKRSU (Hitesh Barman faction) had gathered at a field in Basugaon to hold a public rally to press for their demand for a separate Kamatapur state for the community comprising parts of western Assam and North Bengal.
They had gathered despite district administration denying permission for the rally on Monday in view of a bandh called given by the militant National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction).
Police arrived at the meeting site around 2 pm and resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the crowd. As the people refused to leave the field, the police lobbed teargas shells and later fired rubber bullets.
Five AKRSU supporters were injured, with injury of one of them stated to be serious. The injured were admitted to a local hospital.
The president of the AKRSU faction, Hitesh Barman was detained by the police for defying orders not to hold the rally. Various Koch-Rajbongshi groups, including the AKRSU have been agitating demanding a separate state for the community.
Meanwhile, the 12-hour bandh called by militant NDFB (Sangbijit) brought life to a grinding halt in the entire BTC area. All government offices, education institutions, commercial establishments in the BTC remained closed while vehicles remained off the road.
The militant group called for the bandh demanding release of one Paneswar Brahma, president of Indo-Mongolian Youth Front. He was arrested by the police in Kokrajhar two days back for his alleged involved with the outlawed NDFB (Sangbijit faction) and in crimes like abduction and extortion.