Goalpara violence: tribals fear migrants may outnumber locals

Fresh violence in Goalpara district in Lower Assam that led to death of one person in police firing on Sunday...

Fresh violence in Goalpara district in Lower Assam that led to death of one person in police firing on Sunday, has once again brought to focus the growing fear among the indigenous population of being outnumbered by the increasing immigrant Muslims, mostly from Bangladesh.

Indefinite curfew was clamped in Krishnai on Sunday aftenoon, while curfew was also extended to Goalpara town as a preventive measure to stop violence from spreading to the district headquarters.

Incidentally, Goalpara is one of the six districts of Assam which has become Muslim majority in the past three decades.

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One Roshan Ali was killed in police firing when a mob tried to attack the Krishnai police station after six members of the community were picked up on charges of setting on fire two houses belonging to the indigenous Rabha tribal community.

Earlier, police had recovered the body of one Suren Rabha from a river near Krishnai town. Rumours spread that the body was that of a migrant Muslim, following which a mob set fire to houses belonging to one Moni Rabha and Hirendra Rabha.

“The number of migrant Muslims, most of whom are definitely of doubtful citizenship, is increasing in the Krishnai and Dudhnoi areas of Goalpara district. Everyday you see new hutments coming up on the riverine areas and on Government land,” Tankeswar Rabha, president of the All Rabha Students’ Union (ARSU), which has been sprearheading an agitation for Sixth Schedule status to the Rabha community said.

He said while the Government has already established a Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) covering 779 villages of the district, it is the immigrant Muslim community that has been opposing it vehemently.

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“The Non-Rabha Coordination Forum that is opposing the Sixth Schedule status is nothing but a body of immigrant Muslims. And the most dangerous thing is that this group has the backing of various anti-national forces, including the ISI,” the ARSU president said.

Goalpara district is in the radar of intelligence agencies for its ISI and jehadi links, with Md Fakruddin alias Akram Master, the Naib Amir of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) in India also hailing from this district. Akram Master is at present based in Pakistan. Four of the 17 persons arrested for their alleged ISI links by the Assam Police in 1999 also hailed from Goalpara, of whom again three are from Krishnai. All four had been to Pakistan and Bangladesh for training in arms courtesy HuM and ISI, intelligence reports say.

“It is a fact that Krishnai and other areas of Goalpara have been witnessing increased violence in the past few years, and the main reason is definitely the tribal community’s fear of being wiped out by the migrant population,” admitted Sarat Rabha, chief executive member of the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAS).

Noted demographer and former director of Census operations NC Dutta said there is a well-drawn design to convert Goalpara and other districts of Lower Assam close to Bangladesh, into Muslim majority districts.