[Assam] Invite: Release of Book "Secret Killings of Assam"

[utpal borpujari]

The Human Rights Law Network
&
The Nanda Talukdar Foundation
 
Invite You To The Release of
 
“Secret Killings of Assam”,
A Human Rights Document
 
The Book Will Be Released By Justice (Retd) Rajinder Sachar, which will be followed by a discussion on the issue. 
 
Participants: 
Justice (Retd) Sachar, Senior Supreme Court advocate Colin Gonsalves, eminent journalist Praful Bidwai.
 
Venue: Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC); 5, Windsor Place, New Delhi-1 (Near Le Meridien Hotel)
 
Time: 4 P.M.
 
Date: Thursday, 26th March, 2009
 
 
About the book: In the late 1990s, after an attempt at a peace process with the banned ULFA had fallen through, a series of ‘secret’ killings had taken place in Assam, the targets being relatives of ULFA leaders and cadre. The allegation was that a band of ‘secret killers’ backed by the state government was targeting these innocent people, their only crime being relatives of insurgents, to put pressure of ULFA to come forward for negotiations. The Justice K N Saikia Commission, set up by the government to probe into the killings after two other similar commissions fell through, gave a voluminous report on the series of killings after a long inquiry. Like the reports of many such other inquiry commissions across the country, this report too has not been acted upon. This book is a compilation of the most famous and the most horrific cases of secret killings, sieved from the witness accounts contained in the Saikia Commission report. The effort by
 three journalists from Assam – Mrinal Talukdar (UNI-Guwahati), Utpal Borpujari (Deccan Herald-New Delhi) and Kaushik Deka (India Today-New Delhi) – is to bring, in a comprehensive manner, the nature of the incidents to the outside world which more or less remains oblivious to this sordid series of political killings, victims of which were innocent citizens.


Utpal Borpujari 
Special Correspondent, Deccan Herald (New Delhi Bureau)
9811631034; 23719471-2; 23731535
utpalb21 at gmail.com, utpalb21 at yahoo.com, uborpujari at deccanherald.co.in