Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday inaugurated the Shahid Smarak Kshetra at Boragaon — a memorial built in honour of the 860 martyrs of the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement (1979–1985).

The inauguration coincided with Shahid Divas, observed annually on December 10 to commemorate victims of the Assam Movement.

Addressing the gathering, Sarma urged people to visit the memorial and take a pledge to safeguard the state’s identity. He warned against “demographic aggression” and appealed to citizens not to sell land to outsiders, employ them in farms or trade, or allow them to run businesses in Assam.

The chief minister said that, since 2016, the BJP-led government has freed thousands of bighas from encroachers, curbed illegal influx and ensured that outsiders cannot secure state government jobs. He added that the government was considering a law to restrict land purchases in areas where Assamese people have become a minority, except for those whose families have lived in Assam for at least three generations.

Sarma said the Shahid Smarak Kshetra, spread over 150 bighas and built at a cost of ₹170 crore, symbolises the sacrifice and patriotism of those who fought to protect Assam’s identity, pride and language. Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal and agriculture minister Atul Bora were present at the event and offered tributes to the martyrs.

The chief minister also criticised the Congress for its handling of the 1979 elections that triggered the movement, recalling how
Khargeswar Talukdar, a college student, became the first martyr when police allegedly threw him into a canal during a protest against Congress candidate Begum Abida Ahmed.

Sarma, who had joined the protest as a schoolboy, said Talukdar’s death inspired hundreds of Assamese youth to join the struggle, which culminated in the 1985 Assam Accord, parts of which remain unimplemented.