Assam silk war: Curfew after firing in village
Indefinite curfew was clamped in Assam’s Sualkuchi, one of the largest silk villages in the world, on Saturday when silk artisans and weavers, opposing infiltration of imported fabrics, turned violent after the police opened fire to quell the protest.
At least 10 people, including two police personnel, were injured in the firing and stone-pelting by angry protesters. The condition of three protesters who sustained bullet injuries — Gitu Das, Amrit Kakoti and Sabin Thakuria — was critical.
Tension had been building in the silk village for the past few months as some traders had started flooding the market with imported fabric, which the silk artisans and weavers felt threatened the indigenous silk industry.
The trouble began when angry weavers, who had converged for a protest meeting, broke open the shops of imported silk and set silk clothes worth more than `35 lakh on fire.
The weavers claimed artificial silk brought from other parts of the country to make traditional Assamese attire was affecting them and the silk industry in the state.
The weavers also alleged that the silk clothes the shops were selling were not pure Assamese golden muga silk.
The local people, who rear silk worms and are employed in the weaving industry, have been on the warpath for some time against the use of artificial silk from outside, more particularly Benaras, by traders for traditional attire as it is cheap and has a better finish than local silk varieties.
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