Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday (August 8, 2024) allayed fears that the religious minorities in Bangladesh facing attacks amid political turmoil were trying to cross over into India. He said Assamโs 262-km border with Bangladesh was secure and no one has crossed the border illegally so far.
โThe Centre has not instructed our government to allow the minority people from Bangladesh in. Rather, it has directed us to keep the border completely sealed,โ he told journalists in Guwahati.
The Chief Minister said he was confident that the Centre would pressure the new government in Bangladesh politically and diplomatically to ensure the safety of the minorities and their properties.
โThe issue can be resolved not by letting 20-30 people come to India but by ensuring their safety in Bangladesh. There is the United Nations and I am sure the government of India will take it up at the diplomatic level,โ he said.
He insisted there was no point in discussing the situation in Bangladesh โexcessivelyโ. โIt will send a negative message to the people of that country and more Hindus will be persecuted,โ he added.
On Wednesday, the North East Studentsโ Organisation urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure no one illegally enters the northeast from Bangladesh. Apart from Assam, Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km), and Tripura (856 km) share the 4,096-km-long boundary with the country.
โWe seek your immediate intervention to ensure that no illegal (person) enters the northeastern States from Bangladesh and also request that not a single Bangladeshi should be granted asylum or rehabilitated in the entire region,โ the organisation, an umbrella body of eight studentsโ associations in the region, said.
