AUDF vows to detect foreigners

Hafiz Rashid Choudhury at the release of the party manifesto in Guwahati on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections Guwahati, March 28 : The Assam United Democratic Front today sought to turn the tables on its detractors who had accused the party of protecting the interests of illegal migrants, pledging a stringent law to identify the foreigners. In its manifesto released here today, the party said it would also pressure the Centre for an “international agreement” with Bangladesh to take back its citizens who had illegally entered Assam. The AUDF also advocated a “humanitarian approach” towards those who had entered the state from erstwhile East Pakistan as refugees while identifying and deporting the Bangladeshis who had entered the country after March 25, 1971. The move is contrary to the agenda of the BJP, which had been all along stating that the Bangladeshi refugees should not be treated as foreigners. Speaking at the manifesto release function, AUDF working president Hafiz Rashid Choudhury said his party was of the view that there should be a uniform law to detect and deport foreigners across the country. “We want a law that will be effective in detecting and deporting foreigners and also provide adequate safeguards to the genuine Indian citizens to defend the latter in case they are wrongly dubbed as foreigners,” Choudhury said. Since there has always been a problem in deporting those who had been identified as foreigners because of Bangladesh’s refusal to take them back, Choudhury said his party would pressurise the Centre to make it binding on the neighbouring country to take back its citizens. The AUDF in its manifesto also took a tough stand against the activities of fundamentalist forces in the state. “Terrorists have no religion and need to be tackled firmly. There should not be any emotion for terrorists,” he said. The party advocated the need for a political solution to the militancy problem. Flood and erosion was identified by the party as one of the primary problems infesting the state. It pledged that if it succeeded in becoming a part of the next government at the Centre, it would declare it a national problem and would take all steps to find a permanent solution to it. The party also promised economic development of the minorities, welfare of the tea and ex-tea labourers, socio-economic uplift of the Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and the Other Backward Classes in the 24-page manifesto.