Assam tea garden guard dies; family claims he was lynched

52-year-old Baktaruddin Barbhuiya, employed as an Assam Tea Security Force guard in Assam's Cachar district died on Saturday. While his wife claimed he was lynched by a mob enforcing the ongoing lockdown at a local market, police said that he died of high blood pressure following a quarrel.

Silchar (Assam):An Assam Tea Security Force (ATSF) guard died in the state's Cachar district on Saturday, with his family claiming he was lynched by a mob enforcing the ongoing lockdown at a market. Police, however, said he died of high blood pressure after a quarrel.

Cachar police chief Manabendra Dev Ray said the guard, identified as 52-year-old Baktaruddin Barbhuiya, died at a vegetable market in Sonabarighat village close to Silchar town because of high blood pressure after a quarrel with a paan shop vendor.No injury marks on his body was found even as his wife claimed that Barbhuiya was lynched by a mob while enforcing the lockdown.

Dev Ray said that the body of the ATSF guard was taken to the Silchar Medical College and Hospital, where an inquest examination is being done to ascertain the cause of his death.

Meanwhile, police have detained five people for questioning in connection with the incident.

Barbhuiya's wife, who works at a nearby tea garden, however, told the media and police that her husband was hacked to death by some of the sellers and buyers in the market that was open in breach of lockdown order enforced by the Assam government.

The state government on March 24 announced that all markets in the state, except for grocery, vegetables, milk shops, petrol pumps and pharmacies, would remain closed till March 31, causing the shops and markets turned overcrowded by frantic buyers in a rush to purchase essential items.

The Assam government had raised the ATSF in the mid-1990s by recruiting ex-servicemen of the Assam Industrial Security Force during 1993 and 1996 to provide nominal security to the 765 tea gardens. The ATSF works under the Assam Police.

IANS Report