Assam remains in national and international media for a pertinent issue of illegal migration that is taking away its resources from the original inhabitants for decades, but it has now degraded to another level where the locals need to remain alert for safeguarding their security from those suspected Bangladeshi origins. Two recent incidents shocked the indigenous people where the accused turned out to be the suspected Bangladeshi Muslims physically targeting the locals in Dudhnoi and Mangaldoi localities. The police have already arrested some of the accused individuals and more breakthroughs are expected in the coming days. Meanwhile, organisations like Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) and Prabajan Virodhi Manch (PVM) have issued separate statements demanding stringent actions against those criminals under the laws.
Expressing shock and dismay over the horrible Dudhnoi incident, where two teenage girls (belonging to Bodo community) were allegedly gang-raped and a youth was killed by a group of suspected Bangladeshis, the forum of nationalist citizens PPFA urged Assam government to take a serious note of the incident. Both the tribal girls were abused by three suspected Islamists on their return from a Bihu function in the evening hours on 3 May. Next day, the concerned families lodged a complaint at Dudhnoi police station under Goalpara district. Meanwhile, on the night of 5 May, a team of village defence party (VDP) went to confront Dhan Ali Talukdar, a suspect in the rape incident, where a group of goons attacked the VDP members with sharp weapons. One member Hiranmay Khakhlari sustained serious injuries and he was rushed to a nearby hospital. Hiranmay, also from the Bodo community, was later shifted to a private hospital in Guwahati, but he succumbed to injuries on 17 May. Soon after his death, the police picked up Shekabar Ali and Parbina Begum in connection with the murder. Moreover, Dhan Ali Talukdar along with Bahar Ali and Rahman Ali were arrested in connection with the rape incident.
On the other hand, the anti-influx body PVM highlighted the incident of Mangaldoi in Darrang district, where two local residents were physically assaulted by a group of Bangladeshi origin vendors on 24 April. According to the PVM statement, Jiten Deka went to sell his vegetable produce in the daily market controlled by the Mangaldoi municipal board, where he was obstructed and later beaten up severely by those vendors. Deka’s son Sasanka came to his assistance and he was also beaten up badly by them following which Sasanka had to be admitted in Mangaldoi civil hospital. Deka’s wife lodged a complaint at Mangaldoi police station on the same day, but no action was taken. Later when a group of villagers organised a protest demonstration, the complaint was registered on 4 May and one person was arrested.
PVM convenor Upamanyu Hazarika led a representatives to the municipal board and pushed for cancelling the licenses of those offending vendors. A PVM delegation also approached Darrang police superintendent to demand for legal actions against those offenders. Hazarika, a Supreme Court advocate, expressed anger over the developments and commented that until and unless the NRC Assam draft’s re-verification is carried out, 80 Lakhs Bangladeshis detected as the foreigners, safeguarded the rights of indigenous people on land, job, trades, etc Assam will soon head towards becoming a Bangladeshi majority State. Speaking about the final NRC draft, Hazarika claimed that it had only helped many Bangladeshi families to enrol their names in the list. He termed the NRC, which excluded only 19 lakh migrants from the list of genuine Indian citizens, as a failure to the six-year long Assam agitation and an insult to the sacrifice made by 855 martyrs.
Earlier, the PPFA also urged the government to take pragmatic initiatives to verify the draft NRC with the national base year and punish those guilty in fraudulence and money laundering during the NRC updation process. Allegations were framed that it included millions of illegal citizens with the help of software tampering. Shamefully, 6000 local data entry operators (DEOs) in the NRC updating process are yet to get their full legal payments (cumulative amount will be Rs 100 crore). The NRC authority spent a sum of Rs 1600 crore for the process, where the part-time workers were engaged by a sub-contractor and paid only Rs 5,500 (to 9,100) each per month. The patriotic forum asserted that due to the greed of some elements (including a few Guwahati-based television journalists propagating the draft as sacred one), those workers must not be deprived of their legal dues.
Demanding justice for locals in Assam
