Death toll hits 50 in Assam: 400,000 people leave their homes

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The death toll from ethnic unrest in India s northeast rose to 50 on Saturday while at least 400,000 languished in relief camps as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the conflict-hit area.

The national government has dispatched medical teams to Assam to tend to the victims of the fighting that erupted eight days ago between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers over long-running land disputes.

The chief minister of far-flung Assam state, Tarun Gogoi, said the region was now calm after what he called "unprecedented" violence as the focus shifted to providing relief to the 400,000 people who fled their homes.

The death toll climbed to 50 as police reported in a statement that the bodies of five more people killed in the riots had been recovered.

Singh, who represents Assam in the Indian parliament's upper house, was slated to tour relief camps on Saturday accompanied by ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi.

The chief minister described the violence as the worst crisis his government has faced, with rival groups from both sides attacking villages, beating people to death with sticks and burning down homes.

People in the camps have said they were afraid of returning to their homes.

Gogoi has blamed Singh s government for the escalation in violence, saying it failed to send troops immediately after the unrest erupted.

Now at least 3,000 extra soldiers and paramilitary personnel are patrolling the region.

The international rights group Human Rights Watch said tensions had been building for more than two months between the Bodo and Muslim communities, which have clashed in the past over access to land and resources.

The group urged authorities to rescind the "shoot-on-sight" orders and "promptly investigate and prosecute those responsible while addressing the underlying causes of the clashes".

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Floods hit thousands of Indian villages

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About  1 million people have been forced to evacuate due to the floods.

Raging floodwaters fed by monsoon rains have inundated more than 2,000 villages in northeast India, killing at least 27 people and leaving hundreds of thousands more marooned.

The Indian air force was delivering food packages to people huddled on patches of dry land along with cattle and wild elephants. Rescuers were being dropped by helicopter into affected areas to help the stranded.

About 1 million people have been forced to evacuate as the floods from the swollen Brahmaputra River one of Asia s largest swamped 2,084 villages across most of Assam state, officials said.

Officials have counted 27 people dead so far, but the toll is expected to be much higher as unconfirmed casualty reports mount.

Telephone lines were knocked out and some train services were canceled after their tracks were swamped by mud. As the floods soaked the Kaziranga game reserve east of Assam capital of Gauhati, motorists reported seeing a one-horned rhino fleeing along a busy highway.

 "We never thought the situation would turn this grim when the monsoon-fed rivers swelled a week ago," said Nilomoni Sen Deka, an Assam government minister.

Residents of Majuli an 800-square-kilometer (310-square-mile) island in the middle of the Brahmaputra River watched helplessly as the swirling, gray waters swallowed 50 villages and swept away their homes.

"We are left with only the clothes we are wearing," said 60-year-old Puniram Hazarika, one of about 75,000 island residents now camping in makeshift shelters of bamboo sticks and plastic tarps on top of a mud embankment.

A herd of 70 endangered Asiatic elephants, which usually avoid humans, were grouped together nearby, Majuli island wildlife official Atul Das said. "The jumbos have not caused any harm, but we are keeping a close watch," he said.

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'Untouchable' killed in North India

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PATNA - Police in north India said Wednesday they were hunting for a village strongman accused of beating to death an “untouchable” neighbour who broke strict caste-based rules by using a local hand pump. Mohan Paswan, in his late 40s, was lynched in Parhuti village in Bihar state last Thursday when he disobeyed an order by a local thug not to use the pump during a heatwave. 


“Paswan was attacked and brutally thrashed by a village strongman Pramod Singh and his henchmen for taking water,” local police official Saroj Kumar told AFP. “Police have been trying hard to arrest the accused in the case but they are absconding.”


Caste-based discrimination is illegal in India, but abuse is rife, particularly in remote rural areas where the rigid system that places “untouchables” at the bottom of the social order remains in tact.


The low castes, also known as Dalits, traditionally do menial, dirty and often dangerous jobs and are seen as spiritually and physically dirty by the high castes who sometimes prevent them from drinking at the same wells. A fortnight ago there were tensions in the Arwal district of Bihar where Dalits were prevented from entering a Hindu temple where high castes were worshipping.

(The Nation)

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