Guwahati: Did a lot of illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators vote in the Assam assembly election? This is now a valid question after the arrest of a Bangladeshi couple in Guwahati with forged voter IDs. A dangerous network of forged illegal Bangladeshi voters was arrested by Assam police on April 14, just after the recently concluded assembly polls. In a significant crackdown, the Border Police branch of Assam police arrested 4 Bangladeshi nationals from Guwahati city. The arrested Bangladeshi intruders include a man, a woman and two children. According to police sources, they were planning to travel from Guwahati to Mumbai by train.
Assam police launched an intensive investigation as they found forged Indian documents in the possession of the arrested Bangladeshi nationals. Investigation revealed that the intruders entered Assam through a tout based in Assam, namely Asif Ali. The tout gave them forged Indian documents and ID cards, including PAN cards and Voter IDs, which show that they are residents of Barpeta district. Barpeta is a minority majority district in Assam with over 80 per cent of the Muslim population, and most of them are of Bangladesh origin. Just before the assembly polls, thousands of suspected Miya-Muslims reached Barpeta from different parts of the country, claiming that they are natives of the district working across the country.
The police investigation revealed that Asif Ali not only facilitated the intruders with forged Indian IDs but also provided them with fake school certificates to make it more authentic.
Police successfully nabbed the taut Asif Ali, and investigations are underway to bust the larger network of forged documents and the nexus of illegal Bangladeshi intruders.
The Assam election has recently concluded on 9th April. The polling percentage this time was a record 85.38 per cent. Some minority-dominated constituencies in Barpeta district, including Jaleswar, Mondia, and Bir Singh Jarwa, recorded over 96 per cent voting. Even the majority of the polling stations in these constituencies recorded 100 per cent voting.
The SIR was not done in Assam by ECI due to the ongoing NRC update process. Instead, Special Revision was conducted in the state, where over 4 lakh names were deleted due to dual listing and anomalies. The large-scale encroachment of forest and government land by illegal Bangladeshi-origin Miya-Muslims, followed by large-scale evictions by the BJP-led Assam government, was a major election issue in Assam. While the BJP leadership, including PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, are promising to identify and deport all illegal Bangladeshi intruders and continue the eviction drives, the opposition and Congress are opposing the evictions targeting illegal Miya-Muslims.
