Author: Staff Reporter
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: August 15, 2008
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080815/jsp/northeast/story_9697332.jsp
- Students gear up for fresh agitation
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.