Assam Govt detects 4 lakh suspected Bangladeshis

Guwahati, Aug 7 (UNI) The Assam government has detected over four lakh suspected Bangladeshis and urged the BJP not to derail the detection process by turning the issue communal.

Government spokesman and State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said contrary to oppositions claim, the Congress government was vigorously trying to find out the Bangladeshis and had chargesheeted 3,92,000 suspected Bangladeshis so far under the Foreigner's Tribunal act.

''I am shocked that BJP is trying to communalise the issue by repeatedly turning it to communal line. Once that is done, the resistance will come from the opposite side and the entire detection mechanism gets affected,'' he told mediapersons.

Dr Sarma accused the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) of systematically dismantling the whole detection process between 1996-2001. '' The statistics and their party manifesto clearly show that the whole Bangladeshi detection process was derailed. Now the same AGP is accusing us of inaction'' he said.

''Bangladeshis are Bangladeshis but there is confusion on that.

BJP takes the Muslim line, angering the genuine Indian Muslims of Assam and thus defeating the whole issue. They have been systematically doing that for decades for political gain,'' said Dr Sarma.

According to him, the whole issue surfaced again before Guwahati High Court. ''Had we not caught those 60 people as foreigners and chargesheeted them, they would not have gone to Guwahati High Court and you too would not have also got the judgment. There are many such judgments coming. We have caught nearly four lakh Bangladeshis'' he said.

Urging all sections to calm down, he urged the people to in help the legal process.

''The fact remains that four lakh Bangladeshis have been chargesheeted, which means that the machinery had been working.

Otherwise you would not have got such High Court judgements,'' he said.

The state government was mulling an all party meeting to enact a law to handle those missing in the legal process. ''Many of these Bangladeshis after getting legal notice do not respond and drag the case to years. We need a mechanism,'' he said.

The meeting is expected to take place after the Chief Minister's return from Beijing Olympics. He is expected to be back by August 12.

UNI MT ADG RSA RK2004