Thursday, August 14, 2008

All Assam Student's Union to revive 1980’s mission

- Students gear up for fresh agitation

Guwahati:

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) today announced that it was gearing for another Assam Agitation to take the “oust-Bangladeshi mission” it had started in the eighties to its logical conclusion.

“We are gearing up for a vigorous agitation. We would like to tell the government that we are not going to sit quietly till all the clauses of the Assam Accord are implemented,” AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya said on the eve of 23rd anniversary of the signing of the accord.

The AASU launched a hunger strike from 6 this morning to protest the government’s failure to implement the Accord and deport Bangladeshis.

The strike will continue till the official hoisting of the national flag tomorrow.

The student organisation demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and chief minister Tarun Gogoi set a time-frame for the implementation of the Assam Accord.

“The Prime Minister and chief minister, after unfurling the national flag tomorrow, should let the people know by when the government will honour the commitment they made to the people of Assam 23 years ago,” Bhattacharyya said.

By not implementing the accord, the government was dishonouring a non-violent movement spearheaded by the people of Assam, he said.

The AASU also criticised the chief minister for flaying Gauhati High Court’s remark on infiltration. “We are cautioning the chief minister against making any flippant remark on the Bangladeshi issue. It is unfortunate that to protect the interest of Bangladeshis, the chief minister is even making light of a court observation,” he said.

The Opposition AGP and BJP also lambasted Gogoi today for being dismissive of the court’s observation about Bangladeshi migrants. Gogoi had yesterday said the court’s remark that a Bangladeshi would become a kingmaker in Assam was “sweeping and provocative”.

AASU activists, along with members of the Hindu Yuva Chatra Parishad, today handed over 122 suspected Bangladeshi nationals to police in Sonitpur district.

Police said the suspected migrants were on their way to Kharupatiya in Darrang from Dibrugarh in a hired bus when the activists waylaid them at Bihaguri and took them to Tezpur police station.

A two-member division bench of Gauhati High Court, on the other hand, gave 18 persons, who were declared foreigners by the foreigner’s tribunal and the single bench of the court, one more chance to prove their citizenship.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080815/jsp/northeast/story_9697332.jsp

AASU activists stage a dharna in Guwahati on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections.

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