The ruling Congress in Assam on Friday deployed its tried and tested poll plank – the episodes of secret killings – considered as the darkest chapter of Assam’s political history.
The secret killings issue is aimed at countering the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and its ally BJP. The Congress used the issue to bring down the AGP’s boat in the 2001 Assembly polls.
“Secret killings during Mahanta’s rule was a blot on Assam’s history and both the AGP in the state and BJP-led NDA government at the Centre during that period were equally responsible for the killings of innocent people. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is responsible for the secret killings and it could not have been possible without the support of the central government where the NDA was in power then,” Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said during a press conference in Guwahati.
Nearly 400 people were killed between 1998 and 2001 under mysterious conditions. Later, it was found that the victims were either family members or sympathiser of ULFA leaders and cadres and it is alleged that the killers were a group of people from the Surrendered ULFA (SULFA) and security forces.
It was based on the promise of stopping, investing and bringing justice to the victims of secret killings that Congress came to power in 2001. Ever since Gogoi had won two subsequent Assembly polls in 2006 and 2011. In those elections, Gogoi never failed to remind the people of Assam the killing under the AGP regime led by Mahanta.
In 2010, Gogoi announced that 2% of government jobs in the state will be reserved for families of victims who died in the secret killings and insurgent violence.
