In a letter to the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court, the mother of a 19 year old Muslim youth killed in police firing at Goalpara, Assam, urged an independent judicial probe, describing the incident as “an unprovoked, excessive, and disproportionate use of arms by the police officials.”
Nachiran Bibi, mother of Sakowar Ali, and a resident of Ashudubi village, wrote, “We have lost trust in the police authorities to conduct an impartial investigation. Therefore, I am requesting your lordships to order an independent judicial probe into the police firing.”
She also alleged that after the post-mortem, the police took her son’s body to Kismatpur Kabrsthan in Goalpara for burial, even though the family had wanted the burial to take place at Kharidhara Kabrsthan in Krishnai.
“The police refused, saying that the burial could not happen anywhere in Krishnai. We were compelled to comply with the police instructions under stressful circumstances,” she said in a letter dated on August 4th.
According to the letter, the family has been served with an eviction notice by Forest Department officials despite having lived there for the last seven decades. On July 10, 2025, the rooftop structure of their home was removed. However, on July 12, 2025, the police demolished the homes in the village.
“That on July 17, 2025, at around 7 a.m., some of the evicted people were still on the village land in Ashudubi, staying in tents, and were trying to find a place to relocate,” she wrote, alleging that around the same time, forest officials, accompanied by Assam Police personnel, arrived and “began cutting off the connecting road to the village (Ashudubi to Khardang Road) with a JCB.”
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.