By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Badarpur (Karimgonj) : Jamaat-e-Islami Hind
(JIH) South Assam Zone has called upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to bring
to an end "undue harassment of the Bengali-speaking Muslims."
In a memorandum, a copy of which has been
received by TwoCircles.net, sent to
the Prime Minister Saturday, the JIH South Zone president Mohammad Ahmed Ali
asserts the Constitutional right of a citizen of India to live temporarily or
permanently in any part of the country and adopt the profession of his/her
choice.
Presenting a picture of Bengali-speaking Muslims
in North-East India, the memorandum says, "The Bengali-speaking Muslims from
the South Assam called Barak Valley as well as from the economically most
backward ravine areas of North Assam and other places of the State either
migrated for permanent settlement as per rules or temporarily settled down at
different places of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram with Inner Line
Permits and engaged themselves in their respective choice of profession.
Similarly in the plains like Bodoland and autonomous area also a good number of
such native Muslims (neo-Assamese) have been living and earning their
livelihood and contributing a lot to the economic development of the State for
a long time, from the days of the British."
The memorandum laments that unfortunately
the issue of so-called infiltration of Bangladeshis into this part of the
country "with alleged devious intention of increasing Muslim population and
thus converting it into an Islamic State" is raised and the poor
Bengali-speaking Muslims are witch-hunted for all kinds of harassment including
uprooting from their homes and hearths and making them jobless.
It calls the so-called Bangladeshi infiltration
"a funny conjecture," "baseless cry" and "out and out a myth". It avers that
this issue is the "result of politics of hatred and prejudice."
The memorandum further says, "Dangerous
steps are being taken by some of the governments concerned. For example, the DC
of Mokorchang district of Nagaland is reportedly demanding from the Muslims driven
out of there to produce photographs of three generations for obtaining Inner
Line Permit. In this respect letters have been sent to the DCs of Barak Valley
districts. The District Collector of Karimgonj has already received one such
letter. This has been done knowing fully well that fulfilment of such a demand
is next to impossible because almost all these people are either illiterate or
half-literate whose forefathers did not leave behind them any photograph of
theirs. It means that these people would not get Inner Line Permit as a result
of which they wouldn’t be able to go back to their places of settlement/work. There
is every possibility of infliction of further harassment upon them like arrest,
imprisonment and even deportation from the country. And all this may be done
against the repeated statements of the Chief Minister of Assam
that all the victims are natives of Assam and
not Bangladeshis."
The memorandum has urged the Prime Minister
to issue orders for proper rehabilitation of such displaced persons, for judicial
enquiry into the incidences and for compensation of the loss they have
suffered.