Rickshaw-puller killed in police-ULFA chase in Guwahati

Sualkuchi: Dipali doesn't know how to explain to her five children that their father Monaram will never return home.

Monaram Rabha was riding four-year-old Dipjyoti back from school when he was hit by a bullet shot by the police during an encounter with suspected ULFA militants. Rabha, a rickshaw-puller died in the hospital. Dipjyoti was lucky to have survived. The bullet just scraped his left leg.
       
Now Dipali must fend for her children. The eldest attends a weaving centre while the others are studying in a government school. She says she can work only as a daily wager but that will not be enough.
       
"We were daily wage earners. We managed to get by with whatever we got, but now, I need a job," she says Dipali Rabha.

The police have refused to comment in what is clearly a case of misfiring. The militants who had allegedly come to extort a businessman hadn't even fired at the police so Rabha was not even caught in crossfire. He was simply shot at.

But now Dipali needs more than justice. "I need a piece of land or the money to buy one. I need help," she says.