800 students participate in peace cycle rally in Guwahati

Guwahati, Oct 19 : Around 800 students from various schools participated in a cycle rally held at Guwahati in Assam on Sunday to promote peace, keeping in view the recent clashes between the ethnic Bodos and the Bangladeshi settlers.

A German cycle team, "Karma Riders", who had come from Germany to tour the North East for promoting peace, led the rally.

"In Germany, violent incidents make news. A week before leaving Germany, in a local paper I read about the clashes between the Bodos and the Muslims. This is an attempt to recycle news so that we get other news in the German paper about the nice things, about the beauty of the landscape," said Martin Kesper, a cycle rider.

The participants said that they wanted to tell the people about the vibrant culture of the northeast.

"Its an overwhelming impression. The landscape is beautiful. We want to tell every body about that. We hope that lots of tourists will come here because the region is so positive," said Neil Peterson, another cycle rider.

Last week, over 51 people have been killed in clashes between the tribal Bodo community and migrant Muslims in violence-hit Udalguri and Darrang Districts of Assam.

Around 2,500 houses were damaged in 54 villages in both the districts in the clashes.

ANI