1 killed, over 20 injured in clashes over AIIMS location

RAHA, JULY 15: At least one person was killed and over 20 people including two additional superintendents of police were injured today in clashes between police and protesters demanding shifting of AIIMS in Assam from Changsari to here, about 130 km from Guwahati.
“We have got reports of one person being killed. He was injured in the clash and we had sent him to hospital. He was declared brought dead,” Raha Circle Officer PallaviKachary told PTI.
The administration is, however, yet to ascertain the exact cause of the protester’s death, she said.
Kachary said the protesters went on a rampage here in Nagaon district and smashed many government vehicles. They also damaged the circle office building and other installations.
“In the clash, at least 20 people are injured although we cannot verify the exact number at this moment,” she said.
Protesters have, however, claimed that more than 50 of them were injured.
Nagaon Superintendent of Police YsheyTshewangGyatso said the deceased was injured when he fell down while running and people ran over him and he died later.
Trouble began in the morning when about 2,000 people under the aegis of a newly formed body blocked NH-37 here to press for their demand for setting up of an AIIMS instead of at Changsari in Kamrup.
“The highway is the only link between lower and upper Assam and other NE states. So we had requested them (the protestors) to at least clear the highway so that traffic could move. However, they did not listen and started throwing stones at us,” Gyatso said.
The police left with no option but to use force to evict them, resorted to lathicharge, tear-gassing and fired in the air to disperse the crowd, he said.
Gyatso said at least 12 police personnel were injured in the stone throwing by protesters. “Our two additional SPs — Hiranya Kumar Barman and Abdel QuadirArief were injured.
Thankfully all of us were wearing helmets and so there was no serious injury,” he said.
The agitation left thousands of vehicles stranded on the highway for over four hours.
On June 28, Assam government had handed over more than 571 acres of land at Changsari to the Centre to set up the 750-bedded super-speciality hospital at an expenditure of around Rs 1,000 crore and strong protests had erupted here and in middle Assam.
Senior citizens of Raha had launched an indefinite strike and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, senior leader of AGP, an ally of ruling BJP, visited them and lent his support.
To pacify the agitators, the state government announced to set up an All India Institute of Ayurveda here.
The agitation was temporarily called off after Union Minister of State for Railways RajenGohain and BJP MP Ram Prasad Sarmah too extended their support to the protesters and assured them of initiatives to fulfil their demands.
Student bodies like All Assam Students Union and Tiwa Students body, Congress, and others too had extended their support to the demand to set up the AIIMS at Raha.
During the erstwhile Congress regime, the state had shown a number of locations, including Raha and Changsari, to the expert team from the Centre for setting up an AIIMS in Assam.