Assam: Assault on teenage girl sparks protest against ‘outsiders’, Marwari groups made to apologise
Members of the Marwari community in the Sivasagar kneeled in ‘apology’ in the presence of a state minister on Tuesday.
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The alleged assault of a 17-year-old girl in Assam’s Sivasagar town last week has sparked a large-scale agitation against “outsiders”, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday. The protests led to a meeting during which, representatives of Marwari groups kneeled in apology in the presence of a state minister.
The teenager, an arm wrestler, was allegedly assaulted on August 13. Two persons from the Marwari community were arrested in connection with the matter, according to the Deccan Herald.
The alleged assault led to a protest on Monday by 30 Assamese nationalist organisations, with the agitators forcing businesses owned by “non-Assamese” residents to shut down.
Tensions also erupted on Sunday when Gauravv Somani, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader from the Marwari community in Guwahati, filed a complaint at the Dispur police station against Sringkhal Chaliha, a leader of Assamese nationalist organisation Lachit Sena. Somani accused Chaliha of promoting enmity on the grounds of language and race.
On Monday, banned insurgent group United Liberation Front of Assam-Independent demanded that Somani withdraw his complaint, failing which it warned of consequences against “outsiders”, according to The Indian Express.
Amid the protests, state minister Ranoj Pegu, who is also the guardian minister for the Sivasagar district, on Tuesday chaired a meeting in the town where representatives of Marwari groups and Assamese nationalist groups were...
