Police personnel examine documents of migrant labourers at a checkpost near the Manipur-Assam border on Sunday and pro-talks Ulfa leader Jiten Dutta addresses the meeting at Tinsukia district library. (PTI and Telegraph picture)
Jorhat, Sep 3 : The pro-talks group of Ulfa today joined the campaign against illegal migrants in Assam and threatened to take up arms again for the cause.
It also warned AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal
to keep away from igniting communal tension in the state and “banned”
him and All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) members from entering
Tinsukia district till they desisted from igniting communal feelings
and violence in the state.
The pub-mandal unit of the pro-talks group
led by Prabal Neog, Jiten Dutta and Antu Chowdang organised a public
meeting at the district library auditorium in Tinsukia today, where they
announced that they had joined hands with other organisations in the
state to campaign against foreigners from today.
Senior citizens, members of the business
community, educationists and representatives of various organisations,
including Tai Ahom Students’ Union, Brihattor Asomia Yuva Mancha, Muslim
Yuva Parishad, Bengali Chattra Parishad, Marwari Yuva Manch, Tinsukia
District Chambers of Commerce, among others, attended the meeting, where
it was also decided to submit a memorandum to Tinsukia deputy
commissioner S.S. Meenakshi Sunduram, requesting the district authority
to keep a close watch to ensure that no illegal migrant could enter the
district.
The xatradhikar of Dinjoy Xatra in Tinsukia, Jugadananda Goswami, also attended.
A 25-member committee, comprising senior
citizens and members of various organisations who took part in the
meeting today, was also formed to decide the future course of action.
“We have information that hundreds of
illegal migrants have fled to other parts of Assam after the BTAD
violence. As such, we have appealed to the district administration not
to allow these migrants to enter Tinsukia district,” Jiten Dutta, a
leader of the group, said.
The group also called upon the business
community, especially contractors and owners of brick kilns, not to
engage suspected Bangladeshis in any activities. “A large number of
illegal migrants work in brick kilns and is engaged by building
contractors. We appeal to them not to engage these foreigners in the
future. Not engaging them in any activity would make our job easier to
keep them away,” Dutta said.
Prabal Neog, another leader of the group,
said they had taken up and then laid down arms for the state. “We will
take up the gun again, if required, for Assam,” he said.
Dutta said the anti-talks faction led by
Paresh Barua had been maintaining silence on the illegal migrants issue
because it was a puppet in the hands of foreign forces. “Paresh Barua is
working under the instructions of the ISI, which is desperate to
destabilise Assam. As such, he is totally silent on the recent BTAD
flare-up.”
The pro-talks group, comprising A and C
company of the lethal 28 battalion of Ulfa, declared a unilateral
ceasefire in 2008 and come overground. Its cadres are currently staying
in designated camps set up mostly in Tinsukia district.
Ulfa leaders holding talks with the Centre
have already identified illegal migration from across the border with
Bangladesh as a key issue and want the government to take necessary
steps to check the inflow.
The state has once again been caught up in
an anti-foreigners mood reminiscent of the eighties, in the wake of the
riots in BTAD and elsewhere for over more than a month, with the
conflict being described as one between Bodos and illegal migrants.
The Bodoland Territorial Council has made
it clear that it will not accept back those people who left BTAD until
they produced land documents to prove their citizenship.
Like in today’s meeting, Ajmal has been
under fire ever since the riots began and has also been accused of
giving the disturbances a communal colour.
The AIUDF has, however, denied that its leader had played any such role in fanning communal tension during or after the riots.
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