Asom CM's remark on Bangladeshis ridiculous: NESO

Guwahati, Aug 5 (UNI) After facing flak for his alleged soft stand towards the illegal migrants entering the state, Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is now in the line of fire of the North East Students' Organizations'(NESO).

Newly-elected NESO secretary general Gumjum Haider, while categorically terming Mr Gogoi's remark on the recent inflow of Bangladeshis to Assam as 'ridiculous', said, ''If the Asom Chief Minister denies that the people who fled from Arunachal Pradesh and entered Assam are Indian citizens, it is a target on the Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union(APSU).

Mr Haider, who is the head of the APSU, ''We just gave the quit notice to the illegal migrants, and they left the state. Had they been AsOmese, or for that matter, genuine Indian citizens, they would have stayed back in Arunachal Pradesh.'' Mr Haider's remark comes a day after Tarun Gogoi, in his second press conference in four days, claimed that all those who entered AsOm from Arunahcal Pradesh and Nagaland, were citizens of AsOm possessing valid documents.

While the Chief Minister said his government has scrutinized 3,000 people who entered the state, the APSU claimed that over 25,000 suspected-Bangladeshis fled Arunachal Pradesh in the wake of the quit notice.

Maintaining that the ingress of Bangladeshis to North East has threatened the region both demographically and in the perspective of national security, NESO chairman Samujjal Bhattacharyya said, ''It is ridiculous that the state governments are sheltering them and the Centre is keeping silent on the issue.

He added that the illegal migrants should leave the region immediately.

''The NE cannot be a dumping ground of Bangladeshis,'' he said, adding that there were around 18 fundamentalist outfits operating in the region..

UNI