Agitate and cut off Assam from rest of India, says Sharjeel Imam of Shaheen Bagh protest

In a video shared by BJP leader Sambit Patra, Sharjeel Imam can be seen calling upon people to "agitate and cut off Assam and the Northeast permanently from rest of India, if not permanently then at least for a few months."

In a speech in HIndi, allegedly made at an anti-CAA protest, Sharjeel Imam purportedly said: "Time has come to tell the non-Muslims if they sympathise with us then they have to stand with us on our terms. If they cannot accept our terms, they are not our symapthisers."

"I have told this before and I am repeating it again that if we have 5 lakh people organised, we can permanently cut off Assam from rest of India, if not permanently then at least for few months.

"Create ruckus on roads and railway tracks so that it takes them months to clear...it is our responsibility to cut off Assam from India. Only after Assam is seperated from India will they listen to us."

"We all know the condition of Muslims in Assam. CAA, NRC have been implemented there. People are being thrown into detention camps. There is a massacre going on there. In the next six to eight months we may find out all the Bengalis, whether Muslims or Hindus, have been killed," he said.

"If we want to help Assam, we have to block the way for Army to reach Assam and also the supplies.

"And, we can do this. The chicken-neck corridor that connects the northeast with the rest of India is primarily inhabited by the Muslims," he said.

Remember, if the masses are angry it should be used purposefully and not wasted on photo sessions, he said.

Assam Police told NDTV that Sharjeel Imam, a student of Modern Indian History at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), will face charges including those amounting to criminal conspiracy, sedition and promoting enmity between groups on basis of religion.

Chicken-neck corridor Imam referred to in the purported video is a 22 km- wide stretch near Siliguri that connects mainland India with the northeast states. The narrow passage is the only land link that connects India to its northeastern region which shares borders with China(Tibet), Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Meawhile, a Twitter handle identified as the official handle of the Shaheen Bagh protest, distancing itself from Sharjeel Imam, posted a statement: "The protest at Shaheen Bagh is to protect the constitutional morality of this nation. No one individual's videos, statements or articles can represent the movement." They also termed the controversy as distorted media narrative.