Suspected Bangladeshi migrants in Dibrugarh on Tuesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

July 24: The Bodoland administration today gave a group of suspected Bangladeshi migrants in Kokrajhar district 24 hours to move out or be forcibly evicted.

Kokrajhar deputy commissioner J. Gogoi issued the eviction notice, one that could annoy an allegedly protective Dispur, even as student activists in another part of the state rounded up more migrants of doubtful origin.

As in Sonitpur, where activists of the BJP’s youth wing intercepted a group of settlers evicted from Arunachal Pradesh last week, members of the All Assam Students Union herded 69 suspected Bangladeshis into a police station in Dibrugarh.

The Kokrajhar administration’s eviction notice came at the end of the deadline set by the All Bodo Students’ Union and the All Assam Koch Rajbongshi Students’ Union to evict the settlers. Paranoia had gripped Kokrajhar town after the alleged arrival of groups of suspected migrants in Bhotgaon and Kashipara. Makeshift camps housing illegal migrants sprang up overnight in these areas.

Police admitted that 244 families arrived in Kashipara recently and set up makeshift camps, allegedly with the help of the All Bodoland Muslim Students’ Union.

Another group of settlers reportedly set up base in Gossaigaon, a subdivision of Kokrajhar district, a few days later. “These settlers of doubtful origin have built huts in Harsabil, Tilipara, Tamarhat, Burisatum and Sar, all along the Sonkosh river,” a source said.

Representatives of the settlers in Kashipara met officials of the district administration yesterday. “We asked the encroachers who have settled at Bhotgaon-Kashipara near Kokrajhar town to leave by tomorrow morning,” the deputy commissioner said.

The Rajya Sabha MP from Kokrajhar, U.G. Brahma, said the Congress-led government might have had a hand in the influx of people of doubtful nationality into areas administered by the Bodoland Territorial Council.

In Dibrugarh, AASU activists caught the suspected Bangladeshis entering the district from Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh by ferry.

“We had prior information about these suspected Bangladeshi nationals trying to sneak into Dibrugarh after they were chased away from various parts of Arunachal Pradesh. We managed to apprehend these people at Maijanhat. We will not allow any of them to stay in Assam,” Ananta Das, the secretary of the Dibrugarh unit of the AASU, said.

Those detained and turned over to the police claimed they were from Barpeta, Goalpara and Dhubri districts. An official said the police were verifying their antecedents.