GUWAHATI, March 7 - The Central Government�s move to give shelter to the Hindu Bangladeshi nationals is the root cause of the incidents like the attack on the office of the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) in Silapathar in Dhemaji district yesterday. The Assam Government must take a bold stand in favour of the indigenous people of the State. This is the view expressed by the AASU.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said that the Centre�s move encouraged some persons supporting the cause of Bangladeshi nationals to give provocative speeches, which resulted in the incident yesterday. He said that the names of the persons involved in the incident have been mentioned in the FIR submitted to the police and now the Government should prove its sincerity by immediately arresting those persons. He pointed out that the present Government came to power with the promise of working in favour of the indigenous people and it is time for the Government to translate its words to reality.
Bhattacharya said that right from the Assam agitation days, there have been attempts by unscrupulous persons to divert the attention from the main issues by provocations and � we have learnt from the experience and directed all our members to maintain restrain.� We do not want to fall into the trap of some unscrupulous elements who are trying to divert the attention from the main issue. But that should not be treated as our weakness.�
The AASU chief adviser asserted that the students� body is not against Bengali speaking people. But at the same time, he asserted that Assam would never accept the burden of any Bangladeshi national who came to the State after the midnight of March 24, 1971. The problem of infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals to Assam must be solved through implementation of the Assam Accord and all foreigners should be detected and deported irrespective of their religion. He also called upon all the political parties to clarify whether they would protect the interests of the indigenous people of the State or support the cause of foreigners.
Members and supporters of the AASU today brought out processions against the attack on AASU office and in support of the demand for detection and deportation of foreigners irrespective of their religion in all the district headquarters of the State today, which will be followed by �satyagraha� in all the districts on March 10. The AASU and representatives of 28 organizations representing different ethnic groups of the State would meet on March 17 to chalk out the future course of action, Bhattacharya said.
Meanwhile, different other organizations of the State have strongly condemned the Silapathar incident and demanded that the Government should take immediate action to nab the culprits involved.
Condemning the incident, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), an alliance partner of the BJP in the State Government, said that all foreigners living illegally in the State must be detected and deported as per the provisions of the Assam Accord.
The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), while condemning the incident, said that it was an attack on the sentiments of the indigenous people of the State.
The Sadau Asom Karmachari Parishad (SAKP) observed that those who attacked the AASU office even raised anti-Assamese slogans.
The Jatiya Aikyamancha, Asom, a platform of 18 different organizations of the State, said that such actions by a section of �Hindu Bangladeshis� would not be tolerated.
