Dhubri: Altogether 52 Bangladeshi nationals were deported through the Sahapara border outpost of South Salmara-Mankachar district in lower Assam on Sunday, a day before the publication of the complete draft NRC.
Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday had told the Rajya Sabha that the 52 Bangladeshi nationals, who have been in detention camps in Assam, would be deported on Monday. He had said Bangladesh had accepted these people as their nationals.
Sources said the deportation was advanced by a day considering the publication of the complete draft NRC.
Influx from Bangladesh has been a cause of concern in Assam. The state had witnessed the six-year-long Assam Movement against foreigners, resulting in the signing of the Assam Accord. The cut-off date (March 24, 1971) for detection and deportation of foreigners, which was set when the Accord was signed, is the base year for updating the NRC in Assam.
There is a long-standing demand from leading organisations in Assam that the Centre should sign repatriation/deportation treaty with Bangladesh for a smooth transfer of illegal Bangladeshis detected in Assam.
The 52 Bangladeshi nationals, including five women and three children, were handed over to the concerned Bangladeshi authorities at the border outpost under Mankachar police station.
South Salmara-Mankachar deputy commissioner Atika Sultana said the Bangladeshi nationals, who were caught by security forces on different occasions after they entered India, were lodged in different detention camps in Tezpur in central Assam's Sonitpur district and Goalpara in lower Assam from 2012.
"After the completion of the due process and careful observations of the required formalities, the 52 people have been deported to their original country (Bangladesh) in the presence of the Bangladeshi counterparts," Sultana said.
Deputy inspector-general of police (border), Assam, Raunak Ali Hazarika, state home department joint secretary Rakesh Agarwala, South Salmara-Mankachar superintendent of police Amrit Bhuyan and Bangladesh high commission office assistant commissioner Rahidul Islam, along with top officials of the BSF and the Bangladesh Border Guards (BGB) were present during the deportation.
Sahapara border outpost, is around 300km south-west of Guwahati.
