Assam: State govt employees join citizenship protest, martyrs' kin return mementos

While the BJP-led Assam government supported the bill, which is aimed to grant Indian citizenship to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, the Assam state government employees have opposed the bill and taken agitation programme across the state.

The state government employees had staged protest against the bill in Guwahati and other parts of the state.

All Assam State Government Employees Association General Secretary Fakaruddin Ahmed said the state government employees have opposed the bill, which violates the historical Assam Accord.

“We are demanding the central government to scrap the bill. We will not accept this bill,” Ahmed said.

On the other hand, protesting against the bill, the families of 855 people killed in the six-year Assam movement returned the mementos awarded to them by chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal in 2016.

The families of the Assam movement martyrs on Wednesday had gathered at the office of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) in Guwahati and then marched to the Deputy Commissioner office of Kamrup (Metro) district and returned the mementos.

In December 2016, the Assam government had disbursed one-time ex-gratia of Rs 5 Lakh and a memento to the kin of each of the 855 people killed during the Assam movement.

“Eight hundred and fifty-five were killed during the Assam movement from 1979 to 1985. The Assam government had promised to detect and deport all illegal Bangladeshis from the state. But they want to provide Indian citizenship to them by amending the Citizenship Bill. It is very unfortunate. So we have decided to return the mementos given by the state government,” the family member of a martyr said..

Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which recently snapped ties with the BJP over the Citizenship bill row, took out a protest rally against the bill in Guwahati.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)