86 suspected B'ladeshis arrested from Asom

Guwahati, July 18 (UNI) Administration and civil organisations have been alerted as hundreds of suspected Bangladeshis entered Jorhat district of Upper Asom after a verbal ultimatum from the Ao Students Conference (ASC) in Nagaland.

Nagaland's Ao Students Conference had given a 'clarion call' yesterday that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh should leave the state immediately, and those Nagas who harbor them would be treated as 'traitors'.

Official sources said 21 suspected Bangaldeshis have been arrested at Mariani police station near the Asom-Nagaland border today after they failed to produce any valid document of their citizenship.

Lakhimpur police has so far arrested 65 suspected people who have failed to produce valid documents of their citizenship.

Around 500 have been scrutinized by the administration and civil organizations at Mariani, around 17 km from Jorhat, and nearly 100 were still facing detention.

Suspected people continued to enter Asom from the Nagaland side, police said adding the number of detainees may rise.

Police said some people who came from Nagaland admitted that they hailed from Karimganj and Cachar, and were taken to their respective places for verification.

''Trade permits are issued to locals only, and therefore local businessmen employing Bangladeshis as their salesman or rent out their permits will be dealt befittingly,'' the student body warned.

With allegations doing rounds that the student activists were harassing genuine Indian citizens, the ASC clarified that the campaign against Bangladeshis, christened as 'Survival 2007', is in no way connected or related to the Asom-Nagaland border problem.

The ingress of suspected immigrants from Nagaland comes close on the heels of a similar threat issued against the immigrants by student bodies in Arunachal Pradesh.

In the wake of the threat, suspected Bangladeshis numbering thousands entered Asom through Lakhimpur district till today.

Police said scrutiny was on and many people entering the state have been detained at various places.

The arrested would be prosecuted under the Foreigners Act.

UNI