The New Indian Express ·
Violence erupts during protest over Chakma inclusion in Arunachal SIR
GUWAHATI: Tensions flared in Bordumsa area of Changlang district in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday following violence during a protest against the alleged inclusion of Chakma community members in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Shots were fired and stones were pelted during the violence, leaving at least one person, reportedly a member of the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU), injured. Security was tightened in the area to maintain law and order.
The AAPSU and local organisations organised the protest, opposing the alleged inclusion of Chakmas who arrived after 2006 in the SIR process. The AAPSU demanded the immediate arrest of those who allegedly targeted its leaders during the violence.
“We have a clear demand to the state government for the immediate suspension of the SIR process in areas with Chakma and Hajong populations,” AAPSU president Meje Taku told mediapersons.
He also asked the state’s Home Department to ensure that no FIR was registered against any member of the student organisation.
Meanwhile, the Chakma Development Foundation of India approached the National Human Rights Commission, seeking its intervention for the enforcement of a 1996 Supreme Court judgment, alleging that Chakma electors were prevented from appearing at the SIR hearing in Bordumsa.
According to the organisation, the Supreme Court had directed, “The State of Arunachal Pradesh shall ensure that the life and personal liberty of each and every Chakma residing within the State shall be protected and any attempt to forcibly evict or drive them out of the State by organised groups, such as the AAPSU, shall be repelled, if necessary, by requisitioning the service of para-military or police force...”
The organisation said the SIR hearing at Bordumsa had to be postponed following the protests.
“The hearing at Bordumsa could not be completed yesterday either. The ERO was able to hear only 222 of the 252 Form 6 applications, while only 150 of the 303 Form 7 applications could be heard,” it added.
The Chakmas and Hajongs in Arunachal Pradesh are ethnic and tribal communities from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, now in Bangladesh, who were settled by the central government in the 1960s.