BJP incites communal tension: AUDF

Guwahati, July 21 (UNI): The Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) today charged the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) with trying to incite communal tension by targeting Muslim daily wage earners in the name of anti-Bangladeshi drive.

Addressing a press conference here, AUDF working president H R A Choudhury said that the BJP youth wing had been deliberately trying to incite the tension to draw political mileage harassing the ''genuine Indian citizen.'' The BJP youth wing yesterday in a symbolic gesture drove hundreds of labour working on the road construction to Lataseel Police station and handed them over to police suspecting them as Bangladeshis.

''Who gave them the power? Has Assam Government handed over the power to them? We all want all Bangladeshi living in Assam should go as per the Assam Accord. But it does not mean that any Muslim labourer working in the construction activities would be deemed Bangladeshi,'' he said.

He thundered that AUDF would go to any length to stop them. ''There are certain laws if you have some suspicion. You can not forcefully make someone Bangladeshi by looking at his or her appearance,'' he said.

He said that even the AASU, which has been spearheading the anti-Bangladeshi movement for so long, had not resorted to such ''gimmick.'' ''Now there are reports of forcible pushing of Muslim daily wage workers from Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh suspecting them of Bangladeshi. This is not good. Dumping in Assam does not solve the problem. If they can not satisfy their Indian identity they should be prosecuted but not in the manner as it was going on in the moment,'' he said.

Mr Chaoudhury alleged that the BJP was deliberately hyping it up to spread communal tension. ''The BJP must have forgotten that this country is run by law not at the whims of some political goons,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the police released the workers after their employers certified them as bonafide Indian citizen.

UNI