A backlash against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act has left two engineers from Calcutta stranded in Dibrugarh for four days.

Ashish Nandy and Debashish Hazra had reached the Assam town from Guwahati on Tuesday to fix a dialysis machine of a private hospital. But they are yet to reach the hospital.

The two engineers spoke to Metro on the phone describing their ordeal:

“After spending two days at the hotel and living on basic food, on Thursday morning we heard a tea stall had opened,” Nandy said. “Both of us went there and had locally-made cake and tea. But soon there was a commotion and we saw Rapid Action Force personnel mercilessly beating up agitators. They were wielding sticks and indiscriminately hitting whoever they found.

“People, most of them like us, who were not agitators, started running in fear. We left the tea stall and started running as the RAF moved towards us. We managed to enter the hotel unhurt.”

Nandy said Dibrugarh was completely shut when Hazra and he reached from Guwahati. “Tyres were burning and smashed cars were parked on the road. Our biggest worry was to find a hotel. All hotels were closed and no one was ready to accept guests.

“Fortunately, we knew a hotel owner... he agreed to give us a room but warned there wouldn’t be any food as all employees had left. The hotel is in the town’s market area.”

After the two had checked into their room, the manager called, asking them to switch off the lights as agitators were headed towards the hotel, he said. “We could hear people asking the owner if there were any boarders. He said none.”

The hotel owner provided Nandy and Hazra with basic food — roti and sabzi — cooked at home. “He said there was barely any provision at his home as all markets were shut,” Nandy said. “We requested the hospital to send an ambulance as no vehicles were to be seen on roads because of curfew. The hospital told us that agitators were checking every ambulance and in the absence of a patient they were setting the vehicle on fire.”

Nandy said the administration had allowed a market to open on Friday morning. “But there was nothing; everything had been sold at more than double... people were desperate. We bought 10 bananas for Rs 300!”

He said there was no Net connectivity and that neither of them could send photographs back home to assuage the fears of family members. “Buses are not plying, trains are not running and the airport is shut. We don’t know how long we will be stranded.”