Guwahati, November 29: What began as a peaceful protest march against the Assam government’s controversial proposal to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six communities ended in shocking violence on Saturday afternoon when hundreds of agitated Bodo students broke into the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Secretariat and ransacked the Assembly hall.
The protest, organised by the Bodoland University Students’ Union (BUSU) under the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU), started at 2:30 pm from the university’s main gate in Debargaon. Led by BUSU general secretary Japungsar Basumatary, former general secretary Nerswn Narzary and leader Vival Kumar Mushahary, nearly two thousand students marched along JD Road shouting slogans demanding immediate withdrawal of the GoM report tabled in the Assam Assembly earlier in the day.
By 3:30 pm the march reached the BTC Secretariat at Bodofa Nagar. Within minutes, the mood turned ugly. Chanting “Down with Hagrama Mohilary!”, “Down with Himanta Biswa Sarma!” and “Withdraw ST to six communities!”, a large group of around 120–150 protesters overpowered the police and commando barricades, smashed both iron entrance gates and stormed inside.
For the next 30–40 minutes, chaos reigned. Inside the BTC Legislative Assembly hall, angry students overturned tables, shattered chairs, broke windows and doors, ripped out CCTV cameras, tore official documents and even smashed flower pots. Terrified BTC employees and security staff fled the building. Astonishingly, the heavy police deployment present on the spot could only watch helplessly as the rampage unfolded.
The destruction stopped only after Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner Marchanda M. Partin and Superintendent of Police Akshat Garg rushed to the spot around 4:30 pm. Student leaders later held talks with the district administration and submitted a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma containing three key demands:
The Assam government must withdraw the ST proposal for the six communities within 24 hours.
BTC Chief Executive Member Hagrama Mohilary must immediately retract his recent statement that he has “no objection” to granting ST status to the six groups.
No legal action should be taken against the protesting students for today’s violence.
DC Partin assured the students that their memorandum would be forwarded to the Chief Minister, the BTC CEM and the Tribal Affairs Minister without delay.
The incident has exposed glaring security lapses at one of the most sensitive administrative buildings in the Bodoland Territorial Region, despite prior intelligence about the protest.
Reacting to the violence, BPF MLA Durga Das Boro told reporters outside the damaged secretariat:
“The situation is under control now. What they did was wrong. Somebody has misled these students – there is clear third-party involvement and vested interests at play. Hagrama Mohilary has already clarified that BTC has nothing to do with the ST decision. If the Central government wants to grant it, what can we do?”
As evening fell over Kokrajhar, broken glass and splintered furniture lay scattered across the BTC Assembly floor – a stark symbol of the deepening ethnic fault lines the GoM report has reopened in Assam’s most sensitive region.
