Muslims ‘should not fear’ Indian citizens’ register
India yesterday said that people whose names were missing from a list of citizens, to be issued by a border state to detect illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, would not be detained.
There are concerns that the list, to be issued in the northeast state of Assam on July 30, was a means by which Muslims could be targeted.
“We will ensure that every individual gets justice and is treated in a humane manner,” said Rajnath Singh, the Indian Interior Minister. “All individuals will have sufficient opportunity for all remedies available under the law.
“Any person who is not satisfied with the outcome of claims and objections can appeal in the Foreigner’s Tribunal. Thus, there is no question of anyone being put in a detention centre after the publication of the national register of citizens.”
All residents of Assam have had to show documents proving they or their families lived in the country before March 24, 1971, to be recognised as Indian citizens in the register.
It has created panic among many Muslims in Assam because Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, which came to power in the state for the first time in 2016, had vowed to act against illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh.
Human rights campaigners say the drive is also targeting Muslims who are Indian citizens, a charge the government denies.
Mr Singh said Assam had been asked to step up security so no one was harassed in the name of citizenship.
Citizenship and illegal migration are volatile issues in Assam, home to more than 32 million people, of whom about a third are Muslims.
Hundreds were killed in the 1980s in a protest by a native Assamese group.
Hundreds of thousands of people fled to India from Muslim-majority Bangladesh after it declared independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Most of them settled in Assam and neighbouring West Bengal, where there are similar demands to send back illegal Muslim immigrants.
The migrants include many Hindus, but Mr Modi’s government said they can apply for Indian citizenship.