Bongaigaon, Sept. 1: The Biswajit Ray faction of the All-Koch-Rajbongshi Students’ Union (AKRSU) today said the Koch-Rajbongshis would prefer to merge a “Kamtapur state” with either Nepal or Bangladesh if the Assam government did not stop “harassing” people of the community by labelling them illegal migrants and did not respect their “democratic rights”.

The 24-hour strike called today by the faction demanding Kamtapur and Scheduled Tribe status passed off peacefully in Bongaigaon and Chirang districts.

The president of the students’ union, Biswajit Ray, warned the government to stop harassing Koch-Rajbonshi people in the name of detection and deportation of foreigners.

Ray said here it would not tolerate the decision of the state government to seek the Centre’s approval to give citizenship to only Bengali migrants from Bangladesh and not the others, including Koch-Rajbongshis.

“Many Koch-Rajbongshi people have been served notices to prove their citizenship before the foreigners tribunals in Dhubri, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Udalguri, Baksa, Kokrajhar and Barpeta districts in the past few years by the government authorities. Even after appearing before the tribunals with valid documents, the police in some of those districts continue to harass the people,” Ray said here in a news conference.

Some of the victims of police “harassment” in Kuribil village in Baksa district are Draupadi Barman, 55, Sabitri Barman, 52, Bindu Bala Barman, 80, Swarna Bala Ray, 75 and Rajani Barman, 81, he said. “The senior citizens had received notice to prove their citizenship in 2013 and they had submitted supporting documents to the tribunal the same year. The tribunal agreed to their claim and relieved them,” Ray said.

Ray demanded that the police harassment must be immediately stopped while detecting illegal migrants for deportation, otherwise the student organisation would launch a strong agitation against the government soon.