GUWAHATI, Aug 26 - A number of prominent citizens in Assam, including professor Hiren Gohain, have asked the people of the State to realise that there was more to the Nagaon incident, in which the surrendered ULFA cadres were attacked by some traders, than meets the eye.
The group of citizens today said the attack on the indigenous people can never be tolerated, and it warned the people that it could be a well-planned design to fuel hostilities between the Assamese and the Bengali communities.
In a statement issued to the press, the group of citizens said the Nagaon incident was another episode of the Silapathar incident, a bigger political ploy to suit the vested interests.
�We don�t believe that a few Bengali people who attacked the local youth in Nagaon represent the entire Bengali community. It is also seen that most of them are attached to the BJP and the RSS. So, we call upon the Bengali community living in Assam to openly protest this incident so that the evil design to project the Bengalis as enemies of the Assamese is nipped in the bud,� the group said.
The statement has been issued by scholar Dr Hiren Gohain, journalist Haider Hussain, educationists Dr Dinesh Baishya and Dr Dilip Bora, writer Jyoti Prasad Saikia, journalist Manjit Mahanta and social activists like Dr Navanil Barua, Dhiren Ingti, KK Kalita, Shantanu Barthakur and Banjit Hussain.
It asked the people to rationally analyse the entire episode to understand the motive behind it. �We need to understand which forces are trying to give asylum to the Hindu Bangladeshis in Assam at the cost of the indigenous people and also trying to get political mileage out of the Assamese-Bengali conflict,� it said. Hitting out at police for its failure to control the situation, the citizens alleged that the police and the administration are not private agencies of BJP and RSS.
