| Bangladeshi immigrants behind violence: Advani |
GUWAHATI Veteran BJP leader LK Advani blamed illegal immigration of people from Bangladesh into Asom for the communal violence in the state. He accused the state and the federal governments of colluding with the infiltrators from that country.
The BJP veteran, who was on a tour to the violence-hit areas in the state, said the conflict should be seen as an “Indian vs. foreigner issue, and not as a Hindu vs. Muslim issue”. The over week-long violence from July 19 between the Bodos and the Bengali-speaking Muslim settlers left 56 people dead and many homeless.
“Today’s situation arose firstly because of a criminal delay in dealing with the situation when symptoms were already there that something could happen. But as I said, the introspection must lead to identification of the root cause, which is this issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. As a result of the infiltration in collusion of state government and government of India, people of Asom are feeling that they are losing control over their own land while illegal Bangladeshis have embarked upon large-scale land grab,” he said.
“The second is the ethnic problem. The Bodos face the threat of marginalisation in their own land,” he said.
“The third problem is the demographic change taking place in Asom,” he said.
Advani said: “I would like the prime minister, Congress president and state government to honestly introspect as to where the guilt lies. How did all this happen?”
Agencies
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