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Militant killings on the rise in Assam tea estates

Naba Sharma

GUWAHATI, Nov. 22

WITH militant violence in Assam escalating since the first week of November, resulting in the death of 40 people, tea personnel manning the only export earning sector of the State have become highly risk-prone.

Since 1989, 15 persons from the tea industry were killed by militants, mainly those belonging to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). The last to be killed on November 16 was J. Basumatary (35), Assistant Manager of Fatemabad Tea Estate in Barpeta district.

True, there have been fewer killings in the tea gardens compared to other areas of Assam. But, among those killed were people as famous as Surrinder Paul, Chairman, Assam Frontier, as essential a scientist as Dr P.C. Scaria of the Tatas, and a soul as in nocuous as Koyeli Vaishanav, a permanent woman worker of Atterikhat estate of Williamson Magor.

In fact, the tea sector was wholly spared of any such activity till 1988. Even during the bandhs declared by the agitating Asom Gana Sangram Parishad during the Assam agitation days (1979-85), tea gardens were exempted like other essential services.

The ULFA, too, did not interfered with the smooth functioning of the tea gardens though sporadic cases of extortion were reported. But tea production was never affected during the Assam agitation.

It is alleged that violence against tea personnel started with the ``exodus of Doom Dooma tea officials'' in 1989. Tea managements were under constant pressure from the militants to part with a portion of their earnings and subjected to occasional threat s and extortions.

The first victim was D. Choudhury, Assistant Manager, Ledo Tea Estate, who was hacked to death on February 15, 1989. Later on August 5, Amal Barua, a field clerk of Corramore estate of the Magors was shot. Then on March 13, 1990, Tata's Tea Technologist, Dr P.C. Scaria was gunned down. Soon after, the brutal killing of Assam Frontier Company Chairman, Mr Surrinder Paul, on April 9 sent panic signals that warranted appropriate protection measures for the safety of life and property in the gardens.

The tea majors along with local planters even managed to meet the ULFA leadership in 1990 and agreed to meet some of their demands by providing jobs and contracts to locals and apportion some fund for social work in the tea districts. But it was hardly t o the satisfaction of the militants.

Extortions continued unabated though killings of tea personnel were less in 1991 and 1992 and there was no killing during 1993.

With the militants resorting to threats and extortions and the tea management unable to keep the police informed all the time, the tea industry decided to raise the Assam Tea Plantations Protection Force under the operational control of Assam Police. It was a hurriedly raised ill-equipped force of semi-skilled men, which ultimately proved ineffectual. Nevertheless, it was enough to rub the militants the wrong way.

The tea management personnel came under fire in 1994 and over the span of 6 years since 1994, as many as seven tea officials were killed.

The latest killing took place in Fatemabad estate, a tea garden with a meagre 260 hectares of crop area in the non-traditional tea area in the north of Barpeta district. The estate, owned by the Choudhury family of Ujan Bazar, Guwahati (Choudhury Tea & A gro Industries Pvt Ltd), has been a target of militants, especially the Bodos, for years.

As it was not one of the more exalted tea majors, the management found it hard to propitiate the ultras with periodic offerings of ``protection money''. Consequently, there were frequent threats and raids on their employees. Last October, Priyonko Pujari , Assistant Manager, was attacked and drowned while trying to escape. Basumatary replaced Pujari, reportedly at the behest of the NDFB. But as it turned out, Basumatary, himself a Bodo, was killed last week by the very people who placed him there.

The Assamese question if Basumatary's sacrifice would bring to an end the sporadic but unending senseless killings perpetrated by the ultras in the name of political liberation.

While people such as Basumatary lay down their lives for the sake of the employer, the industry and the State, the political leadership takes to passing the buck.

While the Congress demands that President's rule be imposed in the State for the ruling party's failure to contain violence, the Government blames the Congress for its alleged conspiracy with the ultras. In the process, the fate of the innocent dependent s of the victims hang in the balance in the tailored reports of police investigations.