Assam will burn & situation will worsen if citizenship bill is passed, warns ULFA
Source: IT News / Agency
Guwahati, November 04 2018:
ULFA faction's general secretary, Anup Chetia in talk with government on Tinsukia massacre said that if the Centre continues to push the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the situation will worsen and Assam will burn.
He said attempts by vested interests to blame the pro-talk faction of the insurgent outfit for the incident, would derail the ongoing peace process which are now in their final stage.
Chetia said that Assam will burn if they continue to pass the bill and if the bill is passed in Parliament, the situation will worsen and the recruitment for ULFA(I), the ant-talk faction, will increase, he said.
The bill which is pending with the Joint Parliamentary Committee would pave way for granting citizenship to persecuted minority communities, such as Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists, from neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.It is being opposed by indigenous groups in Assam as they said it was against the 1985 Assam Accord, which empowered authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants.
Chetia, who has been engaged in talks after he was extradited from Bangladesh and released on bail, said killings of five people of Bengali community in Tinsukia on Thursday night, was unfortunate.
"Poor people have been targeted," he said.
The police had blamed the United Liberation Front of Assam (Independent) faction for the attack even as the banned outfit denied its role in the killings.
Chetia put the blame on provocative statements by "vested interests and political leaders", including BJP MLA Shiladitya Deb, for vitiating the atmosphere of the state.
On Friday, pro-talk ULFA leaders like Mrinal Hazarika and Jiten Dutta were arrested and have been accused of disrupting peace in state.
Chetia said, "They may have made provocative statements but they are not involved in the incident.
We have laid down arms" .