Aasu for op to flush out jihadis

Guwahati: The All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) on Saturday took out a rally from the historic Latasil playground here demanding a special operation to flush out jihadi elements from the state.
Thousands of Aasu activists gathered at Latasil from where they started the ‘satyagraha’ rally seeking solution to burning issues of Assam, including sealing of the porous India-Bangladesh border.
“Due to lax attitude of the government, fundamentalist and jihadi elements have been able to tighten their grip in Assam over the years. Despite repeated appeals, the Centre failed to seal the India-Bangladesh border through which illegal immigrants and jihadi elements have sneaked into Assam from Bangladesh. The Burdwan blast case has proved it. If activities of the fundamentalist forces and jihadis go on this way, the situation in Assam will become worse than Kashmir,” said Aasu adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya.
He said the failure of the government to fully implement all clauses of the Assam Accord has led to continuous influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This, Bhattacharyya added, has changed the demographic pattern of the state.
Aasu activists from various parts of the state started coming to the city since early in the morning to join the protest. The students asked both the Centre and the state government to provide constitutional safeguards to the indigenous people of Assam. Holding placards and shouting slogans, the Aasu activists thronged the city streets.
The Aasu, however, warned divisive forces not to create communal tension in the name of identifying jihadis in the state. The students’ body asked the government to work on a war-footing to seal the India-Bangladesh border by fixing a specific time limit and update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) under the supervision of the Supreme Court.
The students’ body also urged the government to expedite economic development in the state, solve flood inter-state border problem, protect Majuli and set up national institutions of science and technology in Assam.