Guwahati, Dec. 14: The All Assam Minorities Students’ Union today warned Dispur of a repeat of the Barpeta violence in case the government did not take the minorities, particularly the Muslims, into confidence while updating the National Register of Citizens, 1951.

The violence, which broke out on July 21 on the streets of Barpeta town, claimed five lives and injured over 50.

The students’ organisation also rejected the project to update the NRC and said the document did not have any legal validity since all districts in the state were not covered during its preparation in 1951.

AAMSU president Abdul Rahim Ahmed said of the existing 27 districts, the NRC was available only in nine districts. He said six districts were left out from the exercise, out of 18 districts that existed in 1951. The exercise was partial in nine districts.

Ahmed told reporters here that the organisation did not have any trust in the ruling Congress government since it was playing dirty politics with minorities in the name of updating the NRC.

He did not spare AASU, too, and appealed to the students’ union to respect the sentiments of the minorities.

“When the AAMSU launched a democratic movement in Barpeta on July 21 in protest against the pilot project on NRC update in the district, police meted out barbaric torture to its activists. The state government is still harassing and scaring the religious minorities in the name of updating the NRC. A section of government officials always tries to blackmail the poor and illiterate Muslims living in villages and char areas on the ground that their names will be deleted from the updated NRC. If these Barpeta-like incident will take place in the future,” Ahmed said. The NRC 1951 was a document which was not admissible under Evidence Act and thus had no legal sanction, he added.

The AAMSU president said the NRC was not prepared according to provisions of any law and the government cannot, therefore, update it. “Instead of updating, a new NRC must be prepared taking March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date. Names of whoever had come to Assam till the cut-off date and whose names figured in any of the voter’s lists between 1952 and 1971 should be included in the new NRC, which will end all controversies and politics,” he said.

AAMSU general secretary Rejaul Karim Sarkar said the organisation has also rejected the draft copy of the “simplified” NRC application form. He demanded scrapping certain provisions like clause 15, which seeks 13 documents as address proof from applicants.

The exercise of simplifying the NRC application form had to be carried out following the July 21 protest in Barpeta by the AAMSU.