'Citizenship notice' to Editor sparks Cachar bandh

By Our Special Correspondent

GUWAHATI, JUNE 30. The Bengali-speaking Cachar district in the Barak Valley of Assam observed a 12-hour bandh today in protest against the serving of a notice by the police on Mr. Ranabir Roy, Editor of the daily Sonar Cachar, asking him to prove his citizenship.

The bandh call was given by the Coordination Committee of Citizens which includes leaders of the Congress (I), the BJP and the ruling AGP. The CPI(M) is not in the committee, but extended full support to the bandh.

Speaking on the phone from Silchar, Mr. Roy said he was served with the notice on June 26 and asked to submit documents in support of his citizenship within 15 days.

He alleged that the notice was a sequel to his exposing the ongoing extortion racket indulged in by the police at the traffic checkgates in the district. Police regularly extorted money from truck drivers at the checkgates, according to him.

The SP of Cachar, Mr. Mukesh Agarwal, told this correspondent that a notice to prove his citizenship was indeed served on Mr. Roy. It was one of many such notices that the police are issuing now in course of their house-to-house checking for Bangladeshi infiltrators.

Asked why Mr. Roy, whose Indian nationality was never in doubt, was issued this notice, Mr. Agarwal declined to comment. He said an inquiry into the ``circumstances leading to the serving of the notice'' was being conducted by Mr. R. C. Tayal, DIG, Border.

The State Government has been put on the back foot over this incident. The theory doing the rounds in official circles is that there are ``saboteurs'' in the administration who are deliberately embarrassing the Government by issuing ``quit India'' notices to citizens.

The Citizens' Rights Preservation Committee (CRPC) has expressed grave concern over the indiscriminate issuing of ``quit India'' notices in Assam. At a press conference here today, the CRPC president, Mr. Nripen Saha, said in Nalbari district alone, 15,000 Bengali Hindus and 700 Bengali Muslims had been served notices. Thousands of notices had been prepared in other districts also.

A family at Sonapur near here was served with a notices. The husband managed to produce a document to show that he was an Indian, but the wife could not. She was separated from her only child and reportedly pushed into Bangladesh through the Golakganj border.

The CRPC leader and senior advocate of Gauhati Bar, Mr. B.K. Das, showed a bunch of quit notices issued by the SP of Guwahati. He quoted extensively from the relevant Acts, the Home Ministry circulars and court orders to show that the provisions of the Foreigners Act and the Home Ministry notification under which the notices were purported to have been issued, did not permit issuance of such notices.

SP transferred

The SP of Cachar, Mr. Mukesh Agarwal, was today transferred as the SP of Karimganj, while Mr. P. R. Das, now Security Officer of the Assam State Electricity Board, was posted in his place, the DGP's office said this evening.

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