NDFB chief is Assam’s ‘Kasab’, say angry blast victims

GUWAHATI - Ranjan Daimary, the arrested chief of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), is Assam’s Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, say residents of the state who recall with horror the Oct 30, 2008 serials blasts he masterminded that killed nearly 100 people.

Drawing parallels with the lone Pakistani terrorist captured after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, people in Assam want Daimary hanged or publicly flogged.

“Hand over the terrorist (NDFB chairman) to us and let us decide his fate in public. He should be hanged,” Anirudda Das, a vegetable vendor at the Ganeshguri vegetable market in Assam’s main city of Guwahati, told IANS in a tone laced with anger and remorse.

Das saw at least five fellow vendors killed in front of his eyes and he himself got serious injuries and lost his hearing.

“Ranjan Daimary is Assam’s Ajmal Kasab (the lone arrested Pakistani terrorist responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks) and he should not be spared at any cost,” said an equally angry Dharitri Das, a mother of two who lost her husband in one of the three blasts in Guwahati.

Nine serial explosions rocked Assam Oct 30, 2008 - three each in Guwahati and Kokrajhar, two in Barpeta Road, and one in Bongaigaon.

Nearly 100 people were killed and about 800 injured in the string of deadly explosions blamed on the NDFB, the mastermind being their leader Ranjan Daimary.

The NDFB chairman was arrested Saturday after he was handed over by Bangladesh to India’s Border Security Force (BSF) officials at the Dawki outpost in Meghalaya.

Daimary is now being interrogated at the Assam Police Special Branch headquarters in Guwahati.

Such is the anger that even frontline criminal lawyers in Assam are reluctant to take up Daimary’s case.

“My conscience does not allow me to take up Daimary’s case as I saw many of my colleagues killed in the blast at the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court on Oct 30 2008,” said well known lawyer Nekibur Zaman.

Zaman has pleaded cases of several top militant leaders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in the past.

The three blasts in Guwahati, including one inside the court premises, killed 60 people and injured nearly 200 more.

“We would like to appeal to the lawyers fraternity in Assam not to provide legal help to the arrested NDFB leader,” said Abhijit Sharma of the Assam Public Works, an NGO known for its strong anti-militant stance.

The NDFB is a rebel group formed in 1986 for carving out an independent homeland for the Bodo tribes people in Assam.

The 5ft 7 inches tall Daimary, an MA in Political Science, is being described by the Assam police website as the “most violent and suicidal” person sought by the Interpol with Red Corner notices served on him.

“We are interrogating him and have been able to extract vital information about his outfit,” a senior police official said requesting anonymity.