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Barpeta (Assam): A 19-year-old boy, Sakuar Ali, was shot dead and several others were severely injured on July 17, when Assam police opened fire on a group protesting against an eviction drive in Asudubi, near the Paikan Reserved Forest in Goalpara district. In the days that have followed, a familiar pattern has emerged.

Five days earlier, on July 12, the district administration and forest department had demolished the homes of 1,080 families, along with several other structures, claiming they were illegal encroachments on 140 hectares of forest land. Left homeless, many families took shelter in makeshift tarpaulin tents near the eviction site, hoping to retrieve possessions from the debris.

On the morning of July 17, the administration brought an excavator to dig up a road – a move which would cut motor access to the area. Locals who were still reeling from the eviction gathered around the excavator and tried to stop the digging of the road. Police opened fire. 

Shortly afterwards, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sharma blamed Congress MP and Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi for the whole chain of events. Sarma also indicated in several of his posts on X that the eviction drives taken up by his administration were against “illegal” people and were done to save Assam from a “demographic invasion”. 

The deceased teenager, Sakuar Ali, ran a small grocery shop. He was on his way to his sister’s house in Goalpara on the morning of July 17. When he reached the area where the violence took place, police had already begun firing, said his sister. “My parents are still in shock and barely conscious. Whenever they wake up, they ask for my brother,” Ali’s sister said.

Sakuar Ali’s family have submitted a complaint at the Krishnai Police Station, requesting registration of a first information report against “the brutal and unjustified police firing” on July 17.

Meanwhile, Assam forest authorities have had their complaint at the same police station registered as an FIR. This FIR (40/2025) invokes sections........

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