GUWAHATI: They lined us up asked us to run and then fired at us from behind said two of the surviving eyewitness of the indiscriminate firing by a BSF unit which claimed five lives at Dipila Chowk in Assams Darrang district on July 27.
Girenra Kalita (28) and Dilip Kalita (18) who are undergoing treatment for serious bullet injuries at a govt hospital here said villagers were severely beaten up at Dipila Chowk before being fired upon.
Going by their account there was no encounter at Dipila Chowk as alleged by the security forces. Members of a fact-finding team of the Bar Association of Mangaldoi which visited the site have corroborated the account of the youth and described the firing as unprovoked and inhuman.
It all started around 5 p.m. on July 27 with a blast on the western side of the bridge at Dipila Chowk in which a Maruti Gypsy was blown up said Dilip Kalita. Moments later a group of BSF jawans from a post very close to the bridge started beating up curious villagers who had rushed to the spot after hearing the explosion he said.
DRAGGED OUT: I was attending a tutorial class in a village club when my teacher Ganesh Deka and some of my fellow students were dragged out by the jawans . They took us to the site of the blast and ordered us to stand in a line. A few other villagers were also lined up said Dilip whose left leg is heavily bandaged from thigh to foot.
Lying on an adjacent bed in the hospital Girendra Kalita said he was picked up by the BSF from a paddy field where he was working.
They asked us to run across the paddy fields to save our lives. In panic we started running. Bullets rained on us and we started falling he recalled.
Those who died in the firing were Keshab Deka (40) Ganesh Deka (30) Karuna Kalita (28) Pratap Kalita (25) and Chandra Barua (22).
Girendra who received two bullet wounds in his leg managed to crawl to safety in a house nearby while Dilip who collapsed with a bullet in his thigh lay in the fields till the police arrived an hour later
They shifted him and Girendra to the Mangaldoi civil hospital later they were referred to the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury hospital in Guwahati where they were operated upon.
The two patients are however in police custody and guarded by armed policemen
Soon after the incident the authorities had claimed that a BSF patrol party had opened fire in self-defence killing five and injuring two near the Dipila Bridge under the Sipajhar police station. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 9, 1991
