Silchar, Sept. 28: Citizens' Rights Preservation Committee, Assam, strongly reacted to the alleged remark reportedly made by Farida Abdullah Khan, a member of the National Commission for Minorities, that only poor and unlettered Muslims were intentionally being dubbed D-voters and sent to detention camps.

Committee president Nripendra Chandra Saha in a statement released today said such a remark by a responsible member of the National Commission for Minorities "is really unfortunate".

"This will jeopardise the matter, since the Bengali community as a whole, irrespective of religion, is made up of victimised of D-voters in the name of 'Bangladeshi' who are harassed, tortured and humiliated at every step."

Sadhan Purkayastha, secretary general of the committee, said the function of the commission is to look into the problems and find ways for the all-round development and welfare of the minority communities as a whole.

"In Assam, Bengalis are linguistic minorities. So, the duty of the minority commission is to solve the various problems without politicising the matter and dividing the affected people on religious lines."