Man Declared Foreigner Long ago, Sent to Detention Camp

A CORRESPONDENT

JORHAT: Rijuzul Haque, 46 years old, was declared foreigner in the year 2006 by Foreigners Tribunal, Jorhat. Following summon issued by the Foreigners Tribunal to the Assam Police Border branch, he was ultimately arrested from Rajamaidam within the Jorhat city and was sent to the Foreigners Detention Camp at the Jorhat Central jail on Thursday night.

According to the sources from the Tribunal Court he was declared foreigner by the court way back in 2006 but due to non-availability and frequent change of his residence, the police faced an awkward situation as he was absconding since 2006. His presence was reported in several rented houses in both the districts of Jorhat and Golaghat towards Merapani. He originally hails from Gossaigaon of Kokrajhar district but landed in Jorhat as a mason helper who turned to be a businessman later. Moreover, sources from the Foreigners Tribunal Jorhat said that more than 6000 people coming from Lower Assam are declared foreigners by the court; but they are absconding till date for which police need to give a new thrust for detecting and locating such people.

D voter, sometimes also referred to as Dubious voter or Doubtful voter is a category of voters in Assam who are disenfranchised by the government on the account of their alleged lack of proper citizenship credentials. The D voters are determined by special tribunals under the Foreigners Act, and the person declared as D voter is not given the elector's photo identity card. In 2011, the Gauhati High Court ordered the D voters to be transferred to Foreigners Tribunals set up under Foreigners Tribunal Order 1964 and be kept in detention camps. The Bengali Hindus who migrated from East Pakistan and Bangladesh before and after 1971 are mostly affected by this categorization.

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