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Air Force Bomb Injures Retired SSB Man

The injured man belonged to Ruyu Village where a person had been killed under similar circumstances in 1992.
Dollungmukh Protest

Image Coutesy: Northeast Now

The people of Dollungmukh Circle in Kamle District, Arunachal Pradesh took out a protest march on June 12 against the Indian Air Force (IAF) base. The people reached the IAF base and demanded that the IAF immediately stop live bombing drills in the area and shift the firing or target ranges to another location. It was only a matter of time before the people of Dollungmukh protested as the IAF base had caused them much pain over the years. The trigger for the protest this time was when one of the residents of Ruyu village within the circle sustained multiple fractures in his knee due to shrapnel from a bomb on June 8. The injured man, Bini Todum, is a retired Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) soldier who was at home when the bomb dropped and damaged his house as well as his knee. In 1992, another person from Ruyu, Bini Tabom, was killed allegedly by an IAF bomb.

Earlier on June 5, three mithuns were killed by another bombing drill. The mithun is a semi-domesticated bovine and the state animal of Arunachal Pradesh. It is a symbol of wealth across many communities, and is used for traditional ceremonies such as marriage, worship as well as a mode of currency. The irate villagers refused to bury the carcasses and left them in front of the base. The carcasses were left outside the base as a reminder and a warning to the IAF not to be careless again. In Arunachal Pradesh, among several communities, if a person has died due to a fault of someone else, the deceased's family will bury the body on the killer's property, or in front of it as a reminder of the killer's actions. In this case mithuns were killed, thus the carcasses were left as a reminder to the IAF. The land on which the base has been established had been leased to the IAF for 50 years. At present, 43 years have lapsed. The people allege that 50 years ago they had no idea what it meant to lease the land. Now, they want their land returned and the base shifted.

The people of Dollungmukh had appraised the Governor B. D. Mishra of their grievances last year. In December, the people submitted a memorandum demanding that the base be shifted to Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, when the two ministers visited Raga. However, in April 2018, the IAF conducted Gaganshakti 2018 in the area with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Air Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa as witnesses. Evidently, the people's demands have been falling on deaf ears.

The IAF has denied any wrongdoing on their part and has instead blamed 'encroachment' for these accidents. However, following Bini Todum's injury, the IAF has constituted a 'court of inquiry'. The issue, however, arises with the actual area where the drills are carried out. A large part of the area falls within the government of Assam's jurisdiction. Both the concerned state governments have given the IAF permission to carry out the exercises. Thus, even if the government of Arunachal Pradesh withdraws its permission, the drills can still be carried out in Assam. The IAF pilots would probably find it difficult to see the lines in the ground separating the two states, and probably cross the state boundary. Thus, any attempt to restrict the exercises to Assam would be rendered irrelevant.

Though, the data is scanty, the people of Dollungmukh are not the only ones to suffer due to their land being used for firing ranges. In 1994, the Economic and Political Weekly carried an article on the Netarhat field firing range. The rage was set up by the army to carry out artillery drills in a forested area in present day Jharkhand. The land was mainly inhabited by Oraons, however, there were smaller populations of other communities living in the area. The article stated that whenever the 23 Artillery Brigade wanted to conduct drills, the people would be evacuated and sleep on the fringes of the forest. After the drills were complete – it could take days – the people were 'compensated' at a rate of Rs. 1.50 per person. Considering the tight lipped nature of the defence establishment regarding field firing ranges, one can only wonder how many more similar instances exist.

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