SHOOTOUT DAY!

Beltapara shootout-day remembered

COOCH BEHAR, Jan. 14: Hazrahat-I unit of the Democratic Youth Federation of India observed the fifth year of the Beltapara shootout-day as martyrs day today. They paid floral tribute to the Martyrs Column that was erected there after the incident in memory of four persons who were killed in militant shootout on 14 January in 2004.

 

A gang of miscreants allegedly KLO militants armed with sophisticated firearms opened fire in a video parlour, running in the premises of a local rice mill, at Beltapara in Hazrahat gram panchayat area under Mathabhanga police station, on the evening of 14 January 2004. A video show was going on there at that time. Among the viewers four persons were killed in the firing. They were Goutam Sarkar (17), Ajay Biswas (20), Gour Mandal (20) and Rabi Biswas (18). The day was a haat day.

 

Hazrapara-I local committee of the DYFI, Mr Arun Sarkar said today that the authorities brought the KLO militants to the mainstream and they were rehabilitated properly. But, the family members of the victims are yet to receive compensation or any other assistance from the authorities. "We conveyed the matter to the higher authorities including the chief minister and state forest minister Mr Ananta Roy, who was elected from Mathabhanga Assembly constituency but nothing happened till now", he said. He said, the DYFI has been observing the day at Hazrahat for the past four years in memory of the persons who were killed in militant bullets. []