GUWAHATI, March 8 - Various organisations and parties have condemned the violence and vandalism caused by some members of a little-known Bengali organisation at Silapathar and urged all concerned, especially the common people, to exercise restraint and maintain peace.
Asom Yuva Parishad, the youth wing of the AGP, today staged demonstrations across the State in protest against the incident. It also demanded that the Centre refrain from amending the Citizenship Act for facilitating entry of Hindu Bangladeshi migrants into Assam.
The Save Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG), while condemning the incident, called for immediate arrest of the culprits and also urged the masses to exercise restraint and prevent any communal flare-up.
The Trinamool Congress, in its statement, said that unrest and violence would not solve any problem and that all should be on the alert to foil any design by vested interest groups to create communal frenzy.
It also demanded of the Centre to take up the issue of persecuted minorities in Bangladesh with the Bangladesh government rather than showing haste in welcoming them to India.
The Nagarik Suraksha Samiti also condemned the incident and demanded exemplary punishment to the culprits.
Meanwhile, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) today demanded immediate arrest of the main accused of the March 6, Silapathar violence.
In a statement here, the APCC said that it was because of the policy of the present government in the State to settle the post-1971 Hindu Bangla migrants in the State that the Silapathar incident could occur. The State police has failed to arrest the main accused in this respect and Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has been making misleading statements as to the connection of Subodh Biswas, who was the main provocateur of the Silapathar incident, with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS) and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Perhaps, the State government has not been able to muster courage to arrest Subodh Biswas for his links with the RSS and BJP top brass.
The Silapathar incident is an indication that bad days are in store for the people of the State. It has confirmed the fact that a force is working overtime within and outside the State government to nullify the Assam Accord, and throw a spanner on the works of updating the National Register of Citizens.
However, the people of the State should not allow any divisive force to create any social chaos in the State, said the APCC.
