Rehabilitate Karbi Anglong violence-affected families, demand Assam Opposition parties

GUWAHATI

Assam’s Opposition parties have urged the State government to rehabilitate the families affected by clashes in West Karbi Anglong district less than a fortnight ago.

In a joint memorandum to Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya on Wednesday (December 31, 2025), the leaders of these political parties also sought adequate compensation for the relatives of two people killed in the violence on December 23. These parties included the Congress, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Raijor Dal, and the Assam Jatiya Parishad.

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The parties emphasised livelihood support for the victims of the violence through employment, skill development, and access to short-term credit, along with the restoration of community infrastructure, including schools, roads, and bridges. They further said the government should compensate tribal and non-tribal families for injury and property damage.

“Rehabilitation of the affected must be prioritised,” the memorandum read, demanding a high-level judicial inquiry into the violence and calling for the suspension of Tuliram Ronghang, the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council.

The delegation that met the government had earlier visited the violence-hit areas, and met the families of the victims. It accused the local administration of failing to handle the sensitive situation, and sniffed a political conspiracy behind the violence.

The violence in the Kheroni area of West Karbi Anglong district was the culmination of a fortnight-long hunger strike by a section of the tribal Karbi people, demanding the ejection of non-tribal people — mostly Hindi-speakers from northern India — from government-designated grazing reserves.

The protestors pointed out that non-tribal people do not have the right to occupy such lands in a district under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

The protest intensified on December 22, with a mob setting the ancestral house of Mr. Ronghang ablaze. The situation went out of control the following day, as mobs torched houses and shops.

While a differently abled non-tribal man was burnt alive, a tribal person died in police firing. More than 180 people, including security personnel, were injured.