The HPC Paper Mills Revival Action Committee, a conglomerate of workers’ unions of Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill in Assam, staged an agitation here on Thursday to protest against the death of the mills’ 51 workers.

Production has been suspended at Cachar and Nagaon paper mills since October 2015 and March 2017 respectively. The workers have not been paid for more than two years.

The committee members assembled at Silchar station around 12.30pm. The protesters were shouting “Pradhan mantri chor hain”. When they were about to move towards the venue where Prime Minister Narendra Modi later addressed a gathering, they were detained around 1.30pm.

The agitation was staged before Modi’s rally at Ramnagar, around 4km from the protest spot. Modi did not utter a word on the paper mills.

Forty-seven protesters were taken to Lakhipur and later released around 5.30pm.

Chief convener of the committee, Manabendra Chakraborty, said though the mills’ workers had been suffering unimaginably for the past several months because of non-payment of salaries, the government did not take any step.

“Altogether 51 workers had died since the two mills ceased functioning. Poverty, trauma and lack of medical treatment led to their deaths. Many more are on the brink of death. They will die too if necessary steps are not taken to release the payments,” Chakraborty said.

“These workers have been tortured and killed by this government. The Prime Minister has betrayed the people of Assam, including those of Barak Valley,” he said, adding that they would continue their protests till the mills were made functional and payments were cleared.