According to latest reports, the number of displaced people in the ongoing Bodo-Muslim clashes has now crossed 170,000.

The official death toll now stands at 32, although local media claims that the real figure is much higher. The violence has spread to neighbouring districts such as Dhubri and Chirang, even after the deployment of thousands of soldiers and personnel from paramilitary units. The violence has attracted widespread attention from mainland India, which usually remains indifferent to the events in the Northeast.

The Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who belongs to the pro-Muslim Indian National Congress (INC) party, blamed “outsiders” for the escalation in violence, indirectly blaming the Hindu nationalists, who have supported the Bodos during the riots. Hagrama Mohilary, a leader of the Bodo People’s Front (BPF), an ally of the INC also seconded the claims by Gogoi. Meanwhile the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed that the uncontrolled illegal immigration, encouraged by the INC is the root cause for the trouble.

Indian officials informed the media that a total of 54 companies of paramilitary forces are deployed in the area, in addition to the army contingent. Meanwhile, the Bodo leaders have urged the government to stop the movement of people from the Dhubri district of Assam to the districts belonging to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). They claimed that thousands of armed Muslim insurgents are arriving in Kokrajhar and Chirang, from Dhubri and Bangladesh. Bodos also urged the authorities to close the border between the Bodo dominated Chirang district and the Muslim dominated Bongaigaon district.

Yesterday, clashes were reported from the Muslim dominated Dhubri district, which is home to a tiny Bodo minority numbering some 25,000. Local sources said that many of the Bodo villages were burnt down there, along with a number of Hindu temples.

The Bodoland Police force announced that five miscreants were shot dead by the cops yesterday in the Kokrajhar district, when they tried to indulge in arson and hooliganism. The Assam government has sent two of its ministers, Rockybul Hussain and Nazrul Islam to ascertain the situation in Kokrajhar.
This is the fourth serious clash between the Bodos and Muslims in Assam. The first one occurred in 1952. The formation of BTC sparked another rounds of clashes in 1993, while the third one occurred in 2008.