Assembly delegation visit Silapathar

An all-party delegation from Assam Assembly today visited the troubled Silapathar town where an office of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) was ransacked by an organisation earlier this week.
The 9-member delegation consulted various groups, political parties, citizens and AASU officials and reached a consensus with others on five points to bring back normalcy in the troubled town.
The AASU demanded the arrest of the accused persons named in the FIR particularly the prime accused Dr Subodh Biswas, the delegation said in its report to the Assembly.
AASU would continue its protest till Biswas, president of the organisation that allegedly attacked the office, was arrested, it said.

Members of a little-known organisation "Nikhil Bharat Bengali Udbastu Samanvay Rakhi Samiti" (NIBBUSS) on March 6 attacked an AASU office at Silapathar in Dhemaji district injuring three persons. They demanded Indian citizenship for Hindu Bengalis from Bangladesh.
The next day, Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami announced that an all-party goodwill team, led by Deputy Speaker Dilip Kumar Paul, would visit Silapathar.

The report said AASU members also demanded action against government employees like a school teacher who arranged a meeting preceding the attack.
The other demands of the AASU were shifting the injured to Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh, repairing the ransacked AASU office along with the adjacent school and installing a statue of the late singer Dr Bhupen Hazarika at the AASU office campus.

The delegation report said that around 2,500 people marched through the town after holding a public meeting organised by NIBBUSS on March 6 demanding citizenship to Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh coming to Assam after 1971.
NIBBUSS had also demanded cancellation of 'D' (doubtful) voter system, immediate release of Hindu Bengalis from detention camps and stop alleged atrocities on Hindu Bengalis as foreigners.
"...Suddenly an incident took place between the participants in the procession and some members of AASU of Silapathar unit due to stone pelting. Later, the office of the AASU was ransacked and the 'Sahid Bedi', furniture, electrical equipment, sign board and photographs of Dr Bhupen Hazarika and Jyoti Prasad Agarwala were damaged," the report said.

State DGP Mukesh Sahay yesterday announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh to anyone giving information leading to arrest of Subodh Biswas.