190 arrested in Assam

Guwahati: The Assam government here on Monday said that they are not going to disturb the ongoing peaceful agitation but did not rule out the possibility of Central government reaching out to the protesters for dialogue to resolve the issue.

Informing that the government has decided to suspend the day-curfew in the capital city areas, Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters that the state government was contemplating to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the conspiracy that provoked violence besides leading to attack on Assam Sankardev Kalakhetra, a place where cultural heritage of the state has been preserved.

“The investigation and arrest of those involved in attacking on Sankardev Kalakhetra and Dispur capital complex have indicated some pattern. We are going to form an SIT soon to handover investigation into all these cases,” said Sarma adding that Assam Police have registered 137 cases and arrested more than 190 people in connection with recent violence that rocked the state.

Asserting that situation was returning to normalcy very fast, Sarma said that police was carrying out investigation and examining the video footage to identify each and every hooligan who were involved in damaging the government property. He said that the government would review the situation once again on Tuesday to take a decision restoring the internet services.

Admitting that they are yet to assess the actual damages caused to the state in past 4-5 days, he said that they have instructed the public work department to start the restoration work.

Sarma also released the names of those arrested in connection with attack on Sankardev Kalakhetra. He said, “Alkesh Das, Koshibuddin Ahmed, Washim Ahmed, Naved Mohibul Gani, Jahangir Ahmed, Noor Baksh Ali, Shahid Khan and Imran Ali are those arrested but suspected kingpin Zuber Alam was still at large.”