Assam party fears more violence

All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) President Badruddin Ajmal expressed fear that Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) might see further violence on May 16, the day of vote counting.
Ajmal conveyed the feeling to Assam Governor J B Patnaik at Raj Bhavan in Guwahati, the capital city of Assam. BTAD is yet to recover from the spate of violence that killed at least 44 Muslims recently.
“Miscreants killed AIUDF youth leader Sulaiman Mandol in the Gossaigaon area of Kokrajhar district. Almost everyday since the killings started, bodies have been found. This is very disturbing,” the AIDUF chief is said to have told the governor.
Bodos resorting to violence as Muslims did not support the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) candidate in the ongoing parliamentary polls, he asserted.
Perturbed over the ruling Congress government’s alliance with BPF in the state, and Ajmal demanded that Congress must break the ties immediately.
Voting in India’s bitter marathon election ends on Monday. Politicians have been barred from making speeches or taking to the husting on Sunday, a day before 66 million people are eligible to cast their ballots in 41 seats in the final stage of the staggered voting.
Meanwhile, in a poll related violence, a land mine blast allegedly by Maoist rebels killed seven police officers on Sunday in an insurgency-hit region of central India, the latest deadly attack during national elections, an official said.
The officers had been part of a special force tasked with flushing the Maoist rebels out of their strongholds in the states of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
They were patrolling a densely forested area of Maharashtra state when their vehicle hit the mine planted by rebels, amid tight security as the elections draw to a close, a local police officer said.
“The team was traveling from one part of the region to another when a landmine blast hit their vehicle,” Dharmendra Joshi, police public relations officer for Gadchiroli district where the attack occurred, told AFP.