Assam tea garden owners fire at workers, 10 injured

JORHAT least 10 tea garden workers sustained bullet injuries when their owners opened fire on them in the Numaligarh area of Assam's Golaghat district on Wednesday.

The injured were rushed to Jorhat Medical College Hospital (JMCH) and the condition of three of them is critical.

The incident took place at Bogidhala Tea Estate, about 27 km from Golaghat town, at 10.30 am when a group of workers went to the bungalow of their owners Samir Ray and Sudhir Ray to seek their pending wages and launched a protest. This enraged the Rays who started firing at the unarmed workers, leaving 10 of them critically injured.

As the news spread, hundreds of tea garden workers thronged the spot and started protesting. A team of police and CRPF personnel reached the spot and brought the situation under control after weilding batons on the agitating workers. Police have registered a case at Golaghat police station and arrested Samir and Sudhir.

Police said the tea garden owners fired with their licensed guns when the started staged a protest and set fire to trees within the tea plantation.