MISCREANTS killed at least five Bangla speaking people, including three of a family on Thursday night. Police claimed that United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) operatives have gunned down the people. International media reported that a group of five to six gunmen riding on motorbikes, equipped with sophisticated firearms, at Kherbari village in the district, dragged out five persons from their houses, lined them up on the dry portion of the Brahmaputra river bed, and sprayed bullets on them.
The politics and social cohesiveness became volatile in Assam following the publishing of draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30. The Assam provincial government following the blueprint of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party of India, has spread hatred against Bangla speaking people, and threatened to push them into Bangladesh. The exclusion of over 4 million people, many of them Muslims, raised concerns among human rights organisations over arbitrary detention and possible statelessness without due process. The so-called “irregular migration” from Bangladesh has long been a serious issue in Assam when inclusion of these so-called “illegal immigrants” in voter list increased in the recent years. We believe, the issue has been again raised only for politics.
The NRC had planned to prepare the list of legitimate residents following repeated protests and violence over irregular migration from Bangladesh. The register only listed those people as citizens who can prove that they or their ancestors entered India before midnight on March 24, 1971. Assam Chief Minister said the NRC is being done to identify illegal Bangladeshis residing in Assam and whose names are not in the NRC list will have to be deported.
It’s highly surprising how the ULFA militants could become active again when Delhi is engaged in talks over the last two years with the insurgency groups across its eastern belt to bring them in normal politics. We think, it is the duty of Assam and New Delhi to investigate into the matter and find out who killed the five people and why. The Indian central government must act rationally keeping in mind that any wrong policy targeting these “so-called migrants” could destabilise the regional harmony.
The politics and social cohesiveness became volatile in Assam following the publishing of draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30. The Assam provincial government following the blueprint of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party of India, has spread hatred against Bangla speaking people, and threatened to push them into Bangladesh. The exclusion of over 4 million people, many of them Muslims, raised concerns among human rights organisations over arbitrary detention and possible statelessness without due process. The so-called “irregular migration” from Bangladesh has long been a serious issue in Assam when inclusion of these so-called “illegal immigrants” in voter list increased in the recent years. We believe, the issue has been again raised only for politics.
The NRC had planned to prepare the list of legitimate residents following repeated protests and violence over irregular migration from Bangladesh. The register only listed those people as citizens who can prove that they or their ancestors entered India before midnight on March 24, 1971. Assam Chief Minister said the NRC is being done to identify illegal Bangladeshis residing in Assam and whose names are not in the NRC list will have to be deported.
It’s highly surprising how the ULFA militants could become active again when Delhi is engaged in talks over the last two years with the insurgency groups across its eastern belt to bring them in normal politics. We think, it is the duty of Assam and New Delhi to investigate into the matter and find out who killed the five people and why. The Indian central government must act rationally keeping in mind that any wrong policy targeting these “so-called migrants” could destabilise the regional harmony.
