TEZPUR, Sept 26 � The All Assam Gorkha Students� Union (AAGSU) has strongly protested against the identification of �illegal Bangladeshis� among a section of Indian Nepalese by the district administration of Sonitpur.
Addressing a press meet here, AAGSU president Jagdish Khanal and his associate office bearers alleged that it has affected the Indian Nepalese who have been living in Assam for over 100 years to have been identified as foreign nationals of Bangladesh with a status equivalent to that of Bangladeshi nationals who have entered Assam illegally. Khanal also exhibited several notifications issued by Sonitpur district Foreign National Tribunal (2nd) of Sonitpur against at least 16 persons of Nepali origin who have inhabited in Assam since the pre-independence and having voting right to Indian Parliament.
Indra Bahadur Rai, one of the victims receiving such a notification from the tribunal claimed that his family has been settled in Assam and are residents of Tezalpati under Sootea police station in Sonitpur. �After living in the State over the decades, we have become attached to the Assamese culture and heritage. But it is a matter of regret that at this moment we have been asked to prove our Indian nationality,� he lamented.
The AAGSU president also disclosed that a joint meeting of Assamese Nepali community will be convened at North Lakhimpur representing Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, and Sonitpur districts on September 29 to prepare the future course of action to fight against alleged harassment on Nepali Indians in Assam. He also made it clear that they are against illegal entry of foreign nationals who may be either Bangladeshi or Nepalis.
The AAGSU president referring to the Bhimajuli carnage also disclosed that it would observe a black day on October 4 against the alleged failure to provide adequate security to Nepali community people living along the Assam-Arunachal border in Sonitpur. In the incident altogether 12 people were brutally killed.
