All Hindu Bengalis from Bangladesh be given Indian citizenship: AABJP

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, May 12: The All Assam Bengali Jatiya Parishad (AABJP) today said that all Bengali Hindus who entered Assam from Bangladesh before or after the cut-off year, 1971, should be given Indian citizenship as they had to leave Bangladesh under persecution.

Talking to newsmen here today, AABJP president Sadhan Baishya said: “All Bengali Hindus who entered the state from the neighbouring country before or after 1971 should be given Indian citizenship on humanitarian ground since Hindu Bengalis had to leave Bangladesh under persecution.”

Baishya said: “The start of NRC update work without solving the citizenship problem of Hindu Bengalis in Assam is a conspiracy hatched by the government. Both the Congress and the BJP have forgot what they assured these people before elections. Now they seldom talk of the citizenship issue of Hindu Bengalis who entered Assam from Bangladesh.” On the dispute over land between India and Bangladesh in the Assam sector, Baishya said: “We want a permanent solution to the problem and total sealing of the intertiol border so as to stop further infiltration from Bangladesh.”