Assam riots: Bangladeshis will now grab our jobs, say Northeast youth

Aug 19, 2012, 06:23AM



Guwahati: Amid the mass exodus of Northeasterners from some states, allegations galore that rumours about the possible attacks were planned to secure the employment of illegal Bangladeshi Muslims.



Most of the 7,000 people who fled the cities and reached Guwahati in the last couple of days were grade IV workers employed in various farms and companies. There is growing suspicion that they were driven out to help illegal migrants fill in the vacant posts. What strengthens the suspicion is the fact that apparently not a single student or white-collar worker figured among those who fled. More than 50,000 Assamese youth are employed as grade IV workers in companies across the major cities.



“It was a ploy of some elements to drive out the Assamese people doing labour class jobs in the cities. Had it not been so, why were only these people threatened?” asked Abhijit Sarma, president of Assam Public Works (APW).



“Our people were doing these jobs. Now the illegal migrants will take advantage of the situation. This is a very dangerous thing,” Sarma said.



He said the events that unfolded over the past few days would only further worsen the problem of unemployment in Assam. “The various militant groups will now lie in wait for them. We should not be surprised if many of them join the outfits,” Sarma added.



The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) also did not rule out the conspiracy. AASU president Shankar Prasad Roy claimed that Muslim fundamentalists had planned to drive out the Assamese youth.



“It was planned or else why were the youth working in all the cities threatened about attacks after August 20?” Roy argued.



Over 4,000 youth, who reached Guwahati by two special trains from Bangalore on Saturday morning, expressed a similar suspicion.



Debeswar Doley and his friend Madhab Pegu were working as security guards at Hebbal in Bangalore. They said they would like to go back to their workplace but they were unsure about their re-employment.



“These Bangladeshi Muslims will now flock to the cities and grab our jobs,” Debeswar and Madhab told DNA.



Several others said the panic was created deliberately to drive them out. Nershon Basumatary, who was working at Manaro Hindustan Pvt Limited at Palace Ground in Bangalore, said the people were threatened through mobile text messages.



“They scared us through threatening mobile text messages. They did this to facilitate the employment of Bangladeshis,” said Bhabesh Koch. He was working as an office boy.

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