An eviction drive in Assam has snowballed into a major controversy after a 12-year-old boy was among two persons killed in police firing. Clashes erupted between police and alleged encroachers in villages under the Sipajhar revenue circle of Darrang district on Thursday, leaving two people dead and several others injured. The district administration has cleared 602.4 hectares of land and evicted 800 families since Monday. Four religious structures that the administration called “illegal” were also demolished at Sipajhar.

A retired Gauhati High Court judge will head a judicial inquiry into the incident even as Assam’s ruling party the BJP accused “various forces,” including Islamist organisation Popular Front of India, of instigating the attack against the police.

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A retired Gauhati High Court judge will head a judicial inquiry into the incident even as the ruling party blamed “various forces,” including the Popular Front of India, for instigating the attack against police.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the eviction drive was launched after discussions for over four months to clear the land at Gorukhuti village in Darrang.

Sarma said about 10,000 people had surrounded the police who were forced to retaliate to quell the violence.

“The eviction drive was not carried out in a day,” Biswa said, asserting it was initiated with an agreed principle that as per the land policy, the landless will be provided with two acres.

“Following this, no resistance was expected,” the chief minister said.

Sarma said over 11 police personnel were injured in the clash.

A video on social media purportedly showed a bullet-wounded person being hit by a cameraman, who has since been arrested by the police. The cameraman had been hired by the Darrang administration to document the eviction drive, The News Minute reported.

Sarma said an inquiry will probe the cameraman’s presence and purported actions at the site of clashes.

A 12-hour bandh called by various organisations against the incident affected normal life in Darrang district on Friday.

The district administration had imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPc to prevent any probable breach of public peace.

Sarma said the eviction drive will resume soon.

The Assam unit of Congress staged a protest against the eviction and firing incident. Party leaders submitted a memorandum to Assam Governor Jagadish Mukhi demanding a halt to eviction until the announcement of a proper rehabilitation package and suspension of Deputy Commissioner Prabhati Thaosen and Superintendent of Police Sushanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister’s younger brother.

The CPI (M) also condemned the police action, saying the Assam government had unleashed violence against “citizens of India, poor peasants who have been tilling the land for decades.”

TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticised the BJP over the “law and order situation” in states ruled by it.

Pakistan summoned India’s Charge d’ Affaires in Islamabad and said New Delhi must investigate the recent “anti-Muslim violence in Assam” and punish the perpetrators.

The Darrang firing incident comes as Assam Human Rights Commission is probing police shootings in five districts of Assam.

The commission had on July 7 taken suo moto cognisance of frequent police shootings in the state, and asked the state government to conduct an inquiry into circumstances leading to the killing of 12 accused persons within a month.

The rights panel on Friday directed the state government to submit its inquiry report on the shootings by November 1.