Two weeks before the Assam government is slated to circulate the Tewari commission report on the 1983 Nellie massacre, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Thursday said he believes the “highlight” of the report is not the incident itself but its documentation of “demographic change” and the tensions surrounding it during that period.

Last month, Sarma had said the report would be tabled on November 25 during the forthcoming Assembly session. He reiterated this on Thursday after a Cabinet meeting.

The Nellie massacre of February 18, 1983 is one of the biggest acts of mass violence in independent India. Officially, 1,800 people — mostly Bengali Muslims — were killed and homes torched. Unofficial accounts put the death toll at around 3,000. No one was ever arrested.

Following the massacre,

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