2012 Assam communal unrest: 5 get life term for killing Bodo youth

GUWAHATI: A special court in western Assam's Bongaigaon sentenced Tuesday five men to life in prison for their role in the mob killing of a youth from the Bodo community in Chirang district during the 2012 ethnic violence in the state's Bodoland Territorial Area Districts .

Joyanuddin Seikh, Abdul Khalek, Nabi Hussain, Habizur Ali, and Osman Ali were found guilty after a years-long CBI probe and trial. The court ruled prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt through evidence and witness accounts.

The killing took place on July 22, 2012, when four Bodo men from Hasraubari came under attack from a mob of 40 to 50 armed with daggers, swords, bamboo sticks, and iron rods on a village road. They had earlier moved their families to Gargaon amid escalating communal unrest. The quartet had returned that day to guard their homes.

The wounded men were shifted to Bongaigaon civil hospital, where Ratneswar Basumatary died. The killing was part of a wider wave of clashes in 2012 between Bodos and Bangladesh-origin immigrants. The unrest left more than 100 dead, displaced nearly 500,000 people from both communities, and destroyed homes in over 240 villages.