TMC leaders meet kin of victims, allege ‘hate crime’
It is a hate crime and there’s more to the incident than what meets the eye, Trinamool Congress leaders said as they visited Bisonimukh village in Tinsukia district of Assam on Sunday to meet the families of five victims who were gunned down by suspected ULFA(I) ultras on Thursday.
“There is a hand of hate,” said Derek O’Brien, Rajya Sabha MP who was part of the delegation. The delegation also announced ~1 lakh compensation to each family. “This is a hate crime…We have come here to be with the families. We will get to the bottom of it. We will do whatever it takes to find out who has committed this crime...,” Brian said blaming the BJP.
He said the party could press for a court monitored probe. “It is a bad situation,” he said during the more than 90 minute long stay in the village. “From the stories we have heard here today, there is more to it than what meets the eye...Who benefits from this crime,?” he asked.
“We conveyed the message of chief minister Mamata Banerjee to the affected families,” said Mamata Balathakur, TMC, MP. In a Twitter message, TMC said a delegation comprising party leaders and kin of the Tinsukia victims will meet President Ram Nath Kovind.
Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee alleged that the massacre was the fallout of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam. “NRC was a conspiracy against Bengalis living in Assam. They are being murdered now,” Chatterjee said.
ASSAM GOVT GIVES ~5 LAKH TO FAMILIES
Assam government on Sunday handed over cheques of ~5 lakh as compensation to the families of each of the five persons, three days after they were killed by unidentified gunmen in the district.
BJP MLA from Sadiya, Bolin Chetia, visited the victims’ houses and gave the cheques.
“I have handed over the cheques that the state government had announced after the massacre,” Chetia told reporters after meeting the families.