'Conspiracy to make Asom a Bengali-speaking state'

New Delhi, July 23: The All Asom Bengali Parishad (AABP) has alleged that a political conspiracy is being hatched to make Asom a Bengali-speaking state following the footsteps of another North Eastern state of Tripura.

AABP President Chitto Pal told sources on phone from Naogaon, "A conspiracy is being hatched, probably from across the border, with active support from the ISI of Pakistan, in association with the All United Democratic Front (AUDF)."

''AUDF secretary Badruddin Aajmal, a businessman having business interest spread over 52 countries, including one in Dhaka, has prepared a blueprint to feign communal violence in the state.'' He further added that though the 1991 census report had not been made public, according to well-known facts, the Assamese formed 37.3 per cent and Bengalis 51.7 per cent of the total state's population.

Similarly, in 2001, the census report was again kept at bay to conceal the steep rise of Bengali population in Asom.

He alleged that the ISI was making efforts from across the border to convert Asom into an 'Islamic State' in the cover of declaring it as a Bengali state.

Mr. Pal said Mr. Ajmal was continuously bringing people belonging to minority community from nearby Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland and introducing them as Bengali-speaking Muslims.

Mr Ajmal should desist from converting the Brahmaputra valley's people as Bengali-speaking in the coming 2011 census, Mr. Pal added.

UNI