The Centre and the State governments of north-east might play dirty political game with Bangladeshis who continue to pour in as 60 per cent of the border is still porous. The ground reality can hardly be ignored. After Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalya and Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh is feeling the heat of illegal migrants. The Bangladeshis are not only topsy-turving the demographic structure of the region rapidly but also pushing up the crime-chart, besides adding grist to the mill of extremist and Islamic militant forces, jeopardising the security and integrity of the region as a whole.
Realising the potential threat of this Bangladeshi influx, Nichi Students? Union and All Arunachal Pradesh Students? Union issued quit notice to all the suspect migrants and set July 15 as the deadline. Around 30,000 Bangladeshis from different places of Arunachal Pradesh descended down to Assam and scattered away in the districts of Lakhimpur, Banpeta, Dhubri and Tejpur. AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharjee said, ?It is the responsibility of the Assam Government to take action to deport these people from the state.?
Quite pathetic is the condition of two pushes back centers located at Mahisasan in Karimganj and Mancachar in Dhubri manned by one ASI and three constables. These deportation centers lie neglected without proper communication and other facilities. Yet they are the deportation points for Bangladeshis detected in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. In fact, records show almost all the deported Bangladeshis come back through other open border areas.
The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh has gone on record to say that since his state has no border with Bangladesh, illegal migrants enter the state through Assam, often with fake documents. He spelt out the threat to the state since several ISI operatives ?are carrying out activities under the cover of such migrant people.?
In fact, Nichi Students? Union was outraged at the kidnapping of Teru Yalaong (27), wife of Gaonbura Teru Check of Gaipuring village under Balijan PS in the district of Papunpuro, by Jasimuddin Barbhuiya, who brought her down to his nation village of Lakhimpur under Lala police station. Teru Yalaong was ultimately rescued by Assam police and handed over to their counterpart of Arunachal Pradesh, 22 days after her kidnapping.
The Jorhat District Students? Union slammed Gogoi Government for its weak-knead policy in the identification and deportation of persons of doubtful nationality, thereby offering Assam land to Bangladeshis on a platter.
The wake up signal from Arunachal Pradesh sent rumblings in the hills of Nagaland too where the Students? Conference gave clarion call on July 19 that illegal migrants from Bangladesh should leave the state immediately and the Nagas who harbour them in their houses would be treated as traitors. The student body has warned, ?Trade permits are issued to locals only and therefore local businessmen employing Bangladeshis as their salesmen or renting out their permits will be dealt with accordingly.? Hordes of Bangladeshis have begun to leave Nagaland through Mariani-Mokokchung road. The Students? Conference clarified that the campaign against Bangladeshis christened as ?Survival-2007? is to protect the identity of Nagas.
But enough damage already has been done. Bangladeshis have infiltrated deep inside the State. Politicians are seen bringing Muslims in trucks and mini buses from Karbi Anglong areas of Assam to vote for them illegally in elections. In return, they are provided patronage and allow them to have conjugal relationship with Naga girls, creating a hybrid race, now being classified as Nagamia, Semia, Angamia, Aomia and Zeliangmia.
Quite serious is the fact that illegal migrants hounded out of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland are either melting away with floating Bangladeshis or taking shelter in safe havens. As a specific instance, around 1,000 persons surfaced in Bhotgaon and Kashipara in Kokrajhar district of Assam and raised makeshift camps overnight. All Bodo Students? Union and All Assam Koch Rajbongshi Students? Union issued an ultimatum to the government to shunt out the Bangladeshis from Kokrajhar district immediately, otherwise ?We will take our own course of action.? Joining hands with the student unions, Hagrama Mohiliary, Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Chief, said, ?No foreigner will be allowed to settle in the BTC area at any cost and under any circumstances.? It was later on revealed that these illegal settlers were backed by the All Bodoland Muslim Students? Union. Rajya Sabha MP U.G.Brahma hit out at Gogoi Government for being soft on the serious issue.
It was a coincidence that Mizoram faced with the silent but sinister invasion of aliens too was boiling against Bangladeshis, triggered by the murder of a Mizo youth in the bordering district of Cachar in Assam on July 18. Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) and Mizo Students? Union (MSU) imposed ?Vais- curfew? (curfew against outsiders) throughout Mizoram, demanding capital punishment to the killers of Lalkapliana and grievous injury to his friend Lalrian Thanga. The accused identified as Abdul Kalam Barbhuiya, Samsudin Laskar and Saleh Ahmad Laskar have been dubbed by MZP and MSU as Bangladeshis. In the wake of the curfew, hundreds of persons of doubtful citizenship descended down to Assam from Mizoram. MZP president P.C.Lalthansanga in a statement in the capital Aizwal said, ?Bangladeshis will have to leave Mizoram.? Lalremroata, a MZP leader, was more strident in asserting,? Muslims will have no access in Mizoram.? He said like Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, ?Our State too has become a trouble-spot of Bangladeshis.?
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in their oust-Bangladeshi drive is handing over people of doubtful nationality to the authorities concerned for identification. State BJYM vice-president Nabarun Medhi lashed out at Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) led by Badaruddin Azmal for dubbing their movement as ?parochial and communal? said, ?AUDF won ten Assembly seats with Bangladeshi votes and our drive will continue till 70 lakh Bangladeshis in the State are detected and deported.? Badaruddin Azmal in a letter to the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, has termed thousands of Bangladeshis deported from Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram as Indian citizens and sought his intervention to ensure their security and safe return to the three states in question.
It is, in fact, influx within influx as pushed back illegal migrants from the neighbouring states are entering Assam, a dumping ground. ?It is easy for these illegal migrants to mingle with the huge Bangladeshi population of Assam and be safe,? observed Samujjal Bhattacharjee, North-East Students? Organisation president. ?AGP like the Congress can'traise their voice for fear of antagonising the Muslim vote. Both the political parties have already turned Asam into Bangladesh,? said State BJP president Ramen Deka. The Chief Secretary of Assam P.C. Sarma admitted before the Union Government and the AASU at the tripartite talk held at Guwahati in June that only 54 people could be identified as Bangladeshis and they too had vanished. Even with visas, Bangladeshis vanish in Assam. Ministry of Home Affairs has put the number of such Bangladeshis in the state at 5,000. These Bangladeshis with legal papers pose a more serious threat to the state and the country as a whole. Intelligence agencies have umpteen times cautioned the Center and the state of Asam how Bangladeshis after crossing over to Karimganj, Dhubri, Goalpara and Cachar move to Manipur and Nagaland. Late Hiteswar Saikia, Congress Chief Minister of Assam, one still remembers, after admitting on the floor of the State Assembly about the presence of 30 lakh Bangladeshis, somersaulted on being threatened by his own Cabinet colleague Abdul Muhib Mazumder, architect of the infamous IM(DT) Act, to pull down the government in ten minutes. Tarun Gogoi, prefers to sideline the serious issue as of no consequence. The reality is that Assam has not become a dumping ground for Bangladeshis but also their epicenter to spread across north-east. What catastrophe awaits for the region in the next two decades can be best imagined.
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