Toddler in forest rescued by lady

Marchhila Murmu at a Kumargramduar relief camp with the boy she rescued in
Kokrajhar

TT, Alipurduar, Dec. 26: A mother of two on the run from attacks of the NDFB (Songbijit) faction in Assam's Kokrajhar lost track of her husband on the way to Bengal but she rescued a toddler who was sitting beside two bodies and wailing in a forest.

Marchhila Murmu, an Adivasi from Binnabari village in Kokrajhar, reached a relief camp in Kumargramduar yesterday evening. Her village is nearly 70km from the Assam-Bengal border.

The 45-year-old left home with her two daughters, aged six and eight, and her husband early on Wednesday morning.

"When the miscreants were setting houses on fire in our village, we started running out. I left home with my two daughters and my husband, but I lost him on the way," she said.

Marchhila was among around 50 people that escaped from Binnabari at dawn on Wednesday.

"When we were running through a forest near Binnabari, I saw a little boy crying. He was sitting near two bodies. I took pity on him, picked up the boy and again started running," Marchhila said.

She said she came to know from fellow refugees about the community hall that was converted into a relief camp.

"Yesterday, I reached the camp but my husband is still missing. We have some land back home and my husband looks after it."

Today, 343 Adivasi people have come to the relief camp from different villages of Kokrajhar district. The administration has assured them that there would be no problem of relief stock.

At the Chengmari Community Hall, where Marchhila has landed with the three kids, is also Dilip Murmu. With him are his parents, wife and two children - Ishan, aged about three, and Pallabi, about five - from Koshalbari village in Kokrajhar district.

Dilip's brother Suniram, however, was left behind.

He said his family decided to leave Assam after hearing gunshots in Bitribari, a neighbouring village.

"This morning we started for the Bengal camp. We are all here but my brother Suniram is still in the village. The gunmen have set many houses on fire in adjacent villages. They are armed, we have nothing."

He said that the NDFB(S) militants come to the villages at night. "The villagers stay in the forest during the night and when in the daytime, they return to their homes."

Brother Suniram, who spoke over phone from Assam, said: "In our group are 100 men from the village. We spent last night in a forest. On the other hand, we are to look after the houses, properties, cattle. This morning, when Assam police came in the village we appealed for security at night but they turned us away. So we have decided that, if necessary, we will stay in the forest tonight also, but tomorrow we will start for Bengal."

Roadblocks

Tribals blocked roads four places in north Bengal - three points in Malda district and one place in South Dinajpur.

Traffic, which was held up for several hours in the morning, eased by afternoon after local officials spoke to the protesters who wanted the arrest of those who gunned down Adivasis in Assam.