Anjel Chakma murder: NE students in Dehradun vow to stay, not surrender to fear; will protest until main accused is arrested

DEHRADUN: The murder of Anjel Chakma, a 24-year-old MBA student from Tripura, might have fractured a city's sense of safety — but among students from the Northeast living in Dehradun, it has forged something else entirely: resolve. In the three weeks since the Dec 9 incident, when Chakma was allegedly stabbed to death in the city's Selaqui area during a confrontation with a group of local youths, the city's Northeast community has not thinned out. No student from the region has returned home out of fear. Instead, they have chosen to stay — and to protest, publicly and persistently, until justice is served.There are close to 3,000 students from the Northeast enrolled in colleges across Dehradun, many drawn here by the promise of professional courses and relative affordability. The largest groups are from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, and around 250 are from Tripura. Chakma, who was studying at a private university, lived among them — just another student in a city that has become an education hub over the past decade, its hostels and PG accommodations filled with young people from India's eastern corners. Since Chakma's death, the protests have grown more organised, with students preparing banners, giving interviews, and demanding institutional accountability — not just arrests, but structural sensitivity.Now, those young people are on the streets, candles in hand, led by Rishikesh Baruah, president of the Northeast Students Association, Dehradun. "No one left the city after the incident. We decided we won't go home," Baruah said in a measured voice, while speaking to TOI late Thursday evening. "We are more united now. We will stay in Dehradun and demand justice for Anjel." He added that the community plans to intensify protests until police arrest Yagya Awasthi, the lone accused still absconding.Police have arrested five others including two juveniles in connection with the killing. Awasthi is suspected to be hiding somewhere near the Nepal border. "Our teams are putting in all-out efforts to track him down. We're treating this case with complete seriousness," said inspector Bhaskar Sah, the investigation officer with the special investigation team (SIT) formed to handle the case.Away from the public demonstrations, the emotional aftermath of the killing has taken a quieter shape — in phone calls home, in the hushed recalibration of everyday routines, in informal safety protocols that students have begun to adopt. "Our families keep calling, worried something might happen again," said a 19-year-old student from Nagaland, who requested anonymity. "We've started being more cautious. We don't step out alone at night. If we are summoned to a police station, someone always comes along."Students from the Northeast have also begun clustering — living together in the same rooms or apartments where possible, finding comfort in proximity. "It helps. We're together, we talk, and it's easier to cope with what happened," the student said. "We don't want a repeat of such a tragedy."