Govt. detects 4 lakh suspected Bangladeshis

Guwahati, Aug 07 (UNI) The Assam government has detected over 4 lakh suspected Bangladeshis and urged the BJP not to derail the detection process by turning the issue communal.

Government spokesman and State Health Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma today said that contrary to opposition claim, the Congress government was vigorously trying to find out the Bangladeshis and so far had chargesheeted 3,92,000 suspected Bangladeshis 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 media persons.

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 are 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 once again before Guwahati High Court. ''Had we not caught those 60 as foreigners and chrgesheeted them, they would not have gone to Guwahati High Court and you too would not have also got the judgment. There are many more such judgments are coming. We have caught nearly 4 lakh Bangladeshis'' he said.

Urging all sections to calm down, as the emotions were running high on the issue, he also urged the people to help the legal process.

''The fact remains that four lakhs Bangladeshi 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 cases to years. We need a mechanism,'' he said.

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

UNI MT ADG RN1933