Two villages near eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh town on Tuesday continued to be under curfew after the murder of a 20-year-old man on June 19 sparked communal tension.
A team of the State Disaster Response Force had fished out the body of Saurav Das from a river on the night he was allegedly murdered by members of the family of a girl he was said to be dating.
On June 20, people of Lezai area blocked the highway to Dibrugarh, demanding punishment to the accused persons belonging to a different faith. It was the second such killing after that of Rituparna Pegu, who belonged to the indigenous Mising community, in Guwahati on June 12.
“The situation has improved compared to two days ago after a meeting with all the stakeholders at the Deputy Commissioner’s office on Monday. Apart from the district administration handing over a compensation cheque to the victim’s family, a peace committee was formed,” Dibrugarh district’s SP Sreejith T. told The Hindu on Tuesday. He added the curfew in Lezai and Dewanbari areas, imposed on June 20, was still on. “We have arrested three people so far and are awaiting the post-mortem report,” Mr. Sreejith said.
