Tension still looms over Madhabbari, west Tripura as three days has passed after the incident of police firing following protesters opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill clashed with police and burning of shops on Tuesday last.
A large number of security personnel are still camping in the area as prohibitory order under section 144 of CrPc has been further extended.
At least seven including six tribal youths and one security personnel who were injured in the skirmish are hospitalized in Agartala.
Local villagers and stall owners who lost their properties and are one of the worst sufferers of the incident. They are of the view that the 12 hours strike in the TTAADC area on Saturday called by various opposition political parties has also worsened the situation.
State Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has declared a magisterial probe into the incident alleging a conspiracy to destabilize the peace of the state and defame the BJP-IPFT government.
Meantime, an alliance partner along with other opposition parties have been demanding a time-bound judicial probe beside huge compensation for those injured.
During the incident at least 21 shops owned by both tribal and non-tribal section of people, most of them poor and lower middle class, were totally gutted in the fire.
According to the victims, none from the government had visited or taken any step to inspect their loss and how it could be compensated.
Ajay Deb, who had just set up a garments shop which within few minutes turned into ashes said, “I am a very poor person and with a lot of problems I managed to open this shop. I am a vendor and along with my wife, I use to sell clothes from one village to another. Recently we opened this shop with our total savings and taking some loan so this would be our asset for our old age. I am totally doomed, I have nothing else. I had a stock of at least Rs ten lakh, now if the government helps me with something then it will be some relief or I will die.”
Meantime another victim Sambhu Debbarma said, “I had loss of around Rs five lakh in two stalls – one had stock of chickens and another grocery. Who had put the fire we don’t know, now if the government helps us then only we can start again. Now again on 12th (January), it is a strike. How can we go to meet the official for some help and this type of strike is a huge loss for us.”
He also added that prohibitory order under section 144 of CrPc has been further extended till Saturday. However, people from both sections are still in the area and there has been no backlash or any other untoward incident.
According to police official Soumen Das, the situation in Madhabbari and adjacent areas is yet to be normal as prohibitory order under section 144 of CrPc has been further extended and to stop propagating of fake messages through messaging the mobile internet data has been suspended for another 48-hours.
Meantime, six tribal political parties from the opposition have jointly called for a dawn-to-dusk TTAADC area strike on Saturday condemning the police firing and demand for judicial inquiry and compensation for those injured.