North Lakhimpur: Three migrant workers have gone missing or been found dead in Assam’s Lakhimpur district during the first week of January, raising concern in the district.
The body of Ilias Shamim, a youth from Fatehpur in Nowboicha, Lakhimpur district, was found on Friday hanging in Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh. Shamim was working in Arunachal Pradesh at the time.
Kiran Handique (23) from Handique village in Rongoti, Dhalpur, Lakhimpur district, reportedly died on January 8 at his workplace in Manipur. Kiran was employed at an iron factory in Senapati district, and his family was informed that he had fallen into the furnace and died.
Earlier, a youth from the same Rongoti area traveling to Bengaluru was reported missing from a train in Odisha.
Utpal Handique, also from Rongoti, Dhalpur, boarded a train on January 2 from Tatibahar station to Bengaluru via Guwahati. He was traveling for an annual verification process with his former employer, where he had worked until 2014. Utpal had lost his left hand while on the job and was receiving compensation that requires yearly physical verification.
According to his family, Utpal did not respond to calls from home from January 4 onwards, after boarding the train from Guwahati the previous day. A co-passenger reportedly answered Utpal’s ringing phone from his bag left on the train, informing the family that he had been away from his seat for some time. Other passengers told them that Utpal was taken by a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) at a station near Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Since then, there has been no trace of Utpal Handique.
Anxious family members have appealed to the police to fast-track the investigation and have requested assistance from Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The incidents have sparked widespread anger and resentment in rural Lakhimpur, from where hundreds of unemployed youths travel to distant states in search of work, often meeting tragic ends.
Cases of disappearances and deaths of migrant workers from Assam outside the state continue at regular intervals, and the police have struggled to prevent them.
So far, state authorities and other concerned agencies have failed to ensure the safety of migrant workers, leaving bereaved families waiting for answers and justice.
Assam has limited employment opportunities for its youth. While financial assistance schemes exist for women entrepreneurs, there are no provisions for unskilled male workers, forcing many to migrate to other states for employment and livelihood.