Nellie massacre 1983: Assam to table report in Assembly

The Assam Cabinet on Thursday (October 23, 2025) decided to table a report on the 1983 Nellie massacre in the November session of the 126-member State Assembly.

More than 2,000 people were killed in the Nellie incident, which occurred on February 18, 1983, during the peak of the anti-foreigners Assam Agitation. The victims were migrant Muslims, mostly women and children.

“This report has not been tabled so far because the copy with the Assam Government did not have the signature of the Commission’s chairman. We verified it through interviews with officials of that period and forensic checks,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The then Assam Government constituted the panel, headed by Justice Tribhuvan Prasad Tiwari, to probe the causes and circumstances leading to the massacre. It was never made public, although the Commission reportedly submitted it to the government in 1984.

The Chief Minister indicated that tabling the report after four decades would ensure transparency and address the demands from human rights activists, researchers, and political groups for the release of the report on the darkest chapter in Assam’s political history.

They remember so we don’t forget

Two-child policy relaxation

The State Cabinet also announced the exemption of the Scheduled Tribes, “tea tribes” (Adivasis), Moran, and Matak communities from the two-child policy for government jobs.

The policy, which came into effect in January 2021 under the Assam Public Services Rules, 2019, will continue to apply to other communities.

The Chief Minister said this decision was taken after extensive consultations with social scientists. “If we stick to the policy, these populations will lose their distinct identities and gradually become extinct in the next 50 years,” he stated.

He also announced that the government will gradually implement the two-child policy for availing benefits under specific State welfare schemes, but will not enforce it for specific indigenous groups to ensure their preservation.

The Chief Minister further said the government would amend the Land Ceiling Act to distribute 2.9 lakh bighas (approximately 96,000 acres) of land among four lakh families of tea plantation workers. “This is a major social development initiative,” he said.