A 12-hour bandh called by various organisations to protest the death of two persons in police firing affected normal life in Assam’s Darrang district on Friday.

Two people were killed and 20 others injured in clashes between police and alleged encroachers during an eviction drive in villages under Sipajhar revenue circle on Thursday.

No untoward incident has been reported thus far within the bandh called by the All Minority Organisations Coordination Committee, which incorporates the All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU) and therefore the Jamiat-e-Ulema among others, that began at 5 AM on Friday, a policeman said. All business establishments remained closed and really few vehicles plied the roads. Security has been tightened across the district with heavy deployment in Goroikhuti, Dholpur I and III villages in Sipajhar where the eviction drive was underway, he said.

A Congress delegation, comprising its state chief Bhupen Bora, Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora, deputy leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Rakibul Hussain and other senior leaders, staged a protest against the incident outside the Darrang deputy commissioner’s office in district headquarters Mangaldoi. The delegation was also scheduled to submit a memorandum to Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi through the deputy commissioner, party spokesperson Bobbeeta Sharma said.

Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta visited the district on Thursday night to review the law and order situation, and announced that the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will probe the incident. “Some facts have come to light while there are many who are yet to be unravelled. The CID will investigate all the aspects,” he told reporters.

The DGP said that the photographer of the deputy commissioner’s office who was seen during a viral video kicking and hitting a person allegedly shot dead by security personnel has been arrested and booked, and he was within the CID’s custody. The government has announced a judicial inquiry into the incident by a retired Gauhati supreme court judge whose name is yet to be declared.

Eleven seriously injured people, of whom three were policemen and therefore the rest civilians, were shifted to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) late on Thursday night, its superintendent Abhijit Sharma said. A policeman and three civilians were stated to be critical, while the condition of the remaining people was stable although they were under observation, he said.

BJP MLA Padma Hazarika, who is that the in-charge of the government’s community farming project to be haunted on the evicted land, said that the protestors had already dispersed after a positive discussion with the deputy commissioner who had assured them that their demands are going to be considered and that they are going to be given an adequate rehabilitation package. “After that who attacked the policemen and under the provocation of whom must be investigated. If vested parties think they will stop the eviction drive and therefore the farming project, then they’re mistaken. The project are going to be successfully completed,” he said.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said on Thursday that the continued eviction drive won’t be stopped and therefore the police entrusted with the work of clearing the land of “illegal encroachers” will still do so till the work was done. The Darrang district administration has thus far cleared 602.4 hectares of land and evicted 800 families since Monday and demolished four “illegally” constructed religious structures at Sipajhar.

The chief minister had visited the world on June 7 and inspected the riverine areas allegedly encroached by ”illegal settlers” near Dholpur Shiva temple and directed the district administration to clear the world for fixing the community farming project.