Young Doctor Thrashed by an Islamist Mob in Assam’s Hojai

The brutal lynching and killing of Sanatan Deka, a poor Hindu vegetable seller by Faizul Haque and his friends in Assam’s Hajo during Ramzan on May 26, 2020 still awaits justice. Within a span of just a few days, the Sanatan Deka episode was followed by another case of stabbing and killing of one Rituparna Pegu over a minor tiff involving a chair, by a group of five Muslim men in broad daylight in the heart of Guwahati city. In yet another horrific incident that came to light around the same time but much later after it had happened, a 20-year old boy Saurav Das from Dibrugarh district in Upper Assam was murdered by three Muslim men on the charge of dating a girl from their community who resided in the neighbourhood. The victim’s body was later disposed off in the nearby Sesa river.

In a repetition of the same pattern, another painful incident happened at Hojai in Nagaon district of Central Assam on June 1. A young doctor who was recently posted at the Udali Covid Care Center (CCC) was mercilessly thrashed and beaten by an Islamist mob after a COVID-19 positive patient died during treatment. The horrific scene of the assault which was presumably recorded on someone’s android phone, triggered a sharp protest from the community of doctors and the general public alike. It could be seen in the video that the Islamist mob continued to thrash the doctor brutally even after the incident came to be noticed.

Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma immediately condemned it as a barbaric attack and ordered the Assam Police to arrest the culprits. In a tweet, the CM wrote – “Such barbaric attacks on our frontline workers won’t be tolerated by the administration.” G.P. Singh, Special Director-General of Police, soon responded to the Chief Minister, saying that three of the main culprits had already been arrested.

It needs to be mentioned here that Hojai and its neighbouring areas of Jamunamukh, Ruphi, etc. in Nagaon district have seen massive demographic change in the past few decades. Notably, AIUDF supremo Maulana Badruddin Ajmal’s family owns most of Hojai town and as well as the largest agar plantation near Hojai. The most important question that arises here is – When one side is actively seeking for violence at even the most minor instances, does it not lay bare the liberal hypocrisy of all civilisations and cultures being tolerant and secular?

Naïve, ignorant Hindus who prefer to choose silence rather than engaging themselves in an honest debate on the issue have failed to realise that it is this same silence that has indirectly helped nurture a soft political vote-bank; a vote-bank which is based on selective ignorance of the long-term socio-political implications of the problem of illegal immigration.

The economic and political survival of the illegal infiltrators in Assam over the years has been faciliated through dubious documents such as forged Voter ID cards, ration cards, etc. with the blessings of a corrupt bureaucrat-politician nexus. Besides the huge demographic shift that it has created in several districts of the state such as Nagaon, the twin menaces of illegal infiltration and land encroachment have now become a serious threat for the culture and civilisation of Assam.

(The author holds a PhD in Political Science and regularly writes on topics of national and current interest).