Bodo tribals demand judicial probe into Kokrajhar violence

The demand was made at a day-long rally near the Parliament House here by about 1,500 tribals owing allegiance to 77 organisations under the banner of the Coordination Committee of Indigenous Tribal National Organisations, Kokrajhar MP S K Bwiswmuthiary said here.

He said the World Bodo Historical Society (WBHS) had urged the Centre to direct the Assam government to stop "all kinds of harassments and trouble being meted out to innocent Bodo tribal people" in the name of nabbing those responsible for the recent spate of violence.

Seeking a permanent resolution of the Bodoland problem, Bwiswmuthiary made a fervent plea for grant of statehood to Bodoland through peaceful political dialogue and granting of autonomy to all indigenous tribals of Assam under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

The Bodoland Peoples Front MP said the Bodos were also demanding return of the land alienated from them and other tribal people in the Northeast and implementation of the 1989 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act by all states in the entire region.