& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Riot survivors too scared to return home in Assam

Reuters, BUasipara
There was little time to do anything but grab her two young boys and run as fast as she could when the gunmen came into the northeast Indian village in the dead of night and began firing.
Along with scores of other villagers, nine-months pregnant Rohima Begum hid with her family waist-deep in the rice fields as the gunshots rang out amid the screams of those left behind.
Eighteen days on, Rohima, like hundreds of thousands in Assam state, languishes in a displacement camp - too scared to go home after the worst ethnic violence in India in a decade.
But the government says the violence, in which 75 people have been killed and more than 400,000 displaced, is over and has set a deadline for fleeing villagers to return to their homes -India's Independence Day onAugust 15.
Violence between the Bodo tribespeople and Muslim communities broke out on July 20, after unidentified men killed four Bodo youths. In retaliation, armed Bodos - who dominate Kokrajhar and Chirang districts - attacked Muslims, suspecting them of being behind the deaths.
Communal clashes have since ensued and fleeing survivors speak of large groups of men armed with automatic weapons surrounding entire villages, going on the rampage, gunning down people or hack-ing them to death with machetes. Hundreds of villages have been looted and razed.
The number of killings has decreased now, but there are at least one or two reports of fresh corpses being found every day and the situation remains tense.
Both the displaced Bodos and Muslim community say they can no longer live together.
Tensions have long existed between the two groups in this region.
Bodo say many of the
Muslims, who over the years have grown to outnumber the Bodos, are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
The Muslims say they are Indian citizens and have voting rights.
This is not the first time that the two groups have clashed. In 1993, Bodos attacked Muslims and other communities resulting in around 2,000 deaths and thousands displaced.
Almost 300 schools, colleges and community centres have been converted into relief camps.
Despite medical teams visit every few days, twenty-two people have died so far in the camps, while around 8,000 children are sick, according to govemmentfigures.
Survivors say they cannot live in such conditions, but add that it is better than dying at the hands of armed mobs.
" We do no t want to live like this, but we will not go back. The security forces cannot protect us. They cannot be there 24 hours a day, guarding us," says Barendra Brahma, 70, a retired school teacher.
"I was bom in that village. If I go back now, it will only be to die."