Author: HT Correspondent
Publication: The Hindustan
Times
Date: August 21, 2000
The move to bring warring
Bodo factions together for the cause Bodoland statehood received a severe
blow when militants from the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB)
gunned down Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS) president Bineshwar Brahma Saturday
night.
Four NDFB men barged
into Brahma's residence at the Bhetapara locality around 9 p.m. and
pumped 14 bullets into his body. He was rushed to the hospital half
an hour later but was declared brought dead.
Mr. Brahma, a senior
Food Corporation of India official, was an important player in the Bodo
unity process that resulted in the ceasefire agreement between the Centre
and the Bodo Liberation Tigers, a rival outfit of the NDFB.
The unification process
initiated by Mr. Brahma had brought the All-Bodo Students Union (ABSU),
the torchbearers of the Bodoland Statehood Movement, and the Peoples Democratic
Front (PDF) closer. The NDFB apparently did not like the idea of
its political front PDF uniting with the ABSU which is said to be behind
the BLT.
He was also at the forefront
of the script row that had divided the Bodo-speaking people into two groups,
one favouring adherence to the Devnagari script and the other advocating
a switch over to the Roman script to end a 25-year-old language movement.
The IFC official, Mr.
Brahma, who had been vocal about the missionary conspiracy to force the
Roman script on the Bodo people, decided to adopt Devnagari as the Bodo
script in March this year. His decision was endorsed by the BSS,
thereby angering the predominantly Christian NDFB, officials said.
Brahma's murder invited
widespread condemnation. While Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta
labelled it as a barbaric act, ABSU president Urkhao Gwra Brahma said that
those responsible for killing the BSS president were hell-bent upon disrupting
the Bodo unification drive.
"Those who killed him
made a very big mistake", the ABSU president said, adding that his death
may lead to deterioration of the law and order situation in Bodo-dominated
areas.
