ATTSA warns militants

Student body to retaliate if tea garden worker is not released

Jorhat, July 9: The Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) today threatened to carry out attacks on Karbi people if the kidnapped employee of the Hatikhuli Tea Estate was not released within the next 24 hours.

Karbi militants kidnapped Bogai Karmakar, a labour sardar of the estate, on Thursday.

Karmakar was inspecting work of women labourers when the suspected rebels, dressed in army fatigues, arrived and demanded the garden manager’s phone number. When he refused to comply, they whisked him away at gunpoint.

Police said, quoting eyewitnesses, there were at least three women among the group of about 12 kidnappers.

Hatikhuli Tea Estate, located along the Golaghat-Karbi Anglong border near Kaziranga National Park, belongs to the Amalgamated Plantations Pvt Ltd, formerly Tata Tea, and is one of the largest organic tea estates in Asia.

The secretary of the Bokakhat unit of the ATTSA, Jiten Tanti, told The Telegraph today that if Karmakar were not released by Monday, the students would be “forced to attack” Karbi people. “We will also carry out road blockades on NH37 and pressure the government to take necessary steps to ensure safe release of Karmakar,” he said.

He said the ATTSA had already given a memorandum to the manager of the tea estate that labourers would shun work from Monday and be engaged in an “agitation” to be launched by the student body. “We have urged the manager to pay the salary of the labour force at least on Monday although they would not be present for duty,” Tanti said.

The student leader said the people of Karbi Anglong, especially those residing in the Santipur area, were totally dependent on market places at Bokakhat in Golaghat district. “We will stop the Karbi villagers from coming to Bokakhat from Monday if Karmakar is not released by the militants,” he said.

He said such a step was the only option left to pressure the Karbi militants to release Karmakar. “Security forces have failed to rescue Karmakar in the last two days. We are being told operations are on to rescue him, but we cannot just wait and watch,” he said.