Assam Faces Bigger Threat from Jihadi Elements: CM

GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday claimed that his state and not Jammu& Kashmir was more vulnerable to  threats from the jihadi elements.“They (jihadi elements) have for long been trying to set up bases here and I had once told Modi (Prime  Minister Narendra Modi) that Assam is more dangerous than Kashmir when it comes to the threat from  them,” Gogoi said.

“Fundamentalist elements and extremists are all dangerous. Not just the fundamentalist elements, we also have threats from the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) and the NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland),” he said.

“We have information that they (jihadi elements in Assam) have links with a Bangladeshi outfit. But  their links with the al-Qaeda are yet to be established. The NIA will hopefully be able to unearth  more (details),” he said.

According to the CM,  Assam  had once been home to some jihadi outfits. However, the state government had been able to weed out  those.

“But some were newly born and some are coming up,” he said.The people in Assam are feeling increasingly terrified about the possibility of being outnumbered as a result of the infiltration of illegal Bangladeshi migrants. In the run-up to the 2014 LS elections, the BJP had been able to play on the threat by promising to go hard at them if the party were voted to power.

The Muslims constitute a majority in at least seven of the 28 districts in the state.“You can write it down. After May 16, these Bangladeshis better be prepared with their bags packed,” Modi, then had said at an election rally in West Bengal.

His statement was well received by the people in Assam, a state whose demography and culture are increasingly being threatened by infiltration from the neighbouring country.

At every rally addressed by him in Assam, Modi was vocal on the issue and promised to firmly deal with it if BJP were to come to power. Now that the BJP is in power, the people feel that it is time for the party to pay back.In 2012, communal riots in Bodoland had claimed over 100 lives, mostly that of Bengali-speaking Muslims.

The Bodos make up only 25 per cent of the population in Bodoland Territorial Areas Districts and they are faced with the threat of losing, among other things , their political clout.Recently while releasing a White Paper on foreigners, Gogoi had said that until 1971, Assam recorded large-scale migration. However, from 1991 there was a steady decline in migration.

The various tribunals from 1985-July 2012 declared 61,774 persons as foreigners and this figure includes those who crossed the Assam-Bangladesh border and entered Assam between 1966 and 1971 and the post-March 25, 1971 migrants,” he had said.

According to a clause of the Assam Accord which the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) had signed with thethen Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress Government at the Centre in 1985, those entering India between 1966 and 1971 are not to be pushed back but will be given time to register themselves as Indian citizens.

But in the cases of those migrating post-1971, they are to be pushed back. Of the 61,774 persons declared foreigners, a total of 32,537 came between 1966 and 1971. Out of the 29,237 migrants, who came after 1971, only 2,442 have been pushed back.

Probe will prove Ultra link if any

Guwahati: Asked if the jihadi elements in Assam had links with terror outfil al-Qaeda, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that that would come to light once the National Investigation Agency completed its investigation into the West Bengal blast case. Six people have been arrested in Assam in connection with the explosion and a number of madrasas in the state are now under the scanner.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com