If citizenship bill passed, Assam's youth will start 'armed revolution': ULFA pro-talk faction

The pro-talk faction of the ULFA has cautioned the central and the Assam governments against "playing with the sentiments" of indigenous people over the citizenship bill, saying any attempt for its passage will compel the state's youths to join an "armed revolution".

The top leadership of the faction also slammed the Sarbananda Sonowal-led government for blaming the group for the recent killing of five Bengali-speaking persons in Assam's Tinsukia district and, therefore, "portraying" the group in negative light.

The pro-talk United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) claimed that following the Tinsukia killings, the arrest of its senior leaders Jiten Dutta and Mrinal Hazarika "without any proof" will further create divide and disturbance in the society.

There have been several protests in the state over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India even if they don't possess any proper document.

The ULFA leaders said there was a sense of fear among the Assamese community over the bill and Assam should not become like Tripura, where, it alleged that "Hindu Bengalis have taken over the state from the native tribals".

"We have already made it clear to the government that they cannot be partial towards the people supporting the citizenship bill and that if the bill is passed then a lot of our youth will join the armed revolution," Anup Chetia, 'general secretary' of the pro-talk faction, told PTI.

"The Assamese people are scared that their legacy will be erased due to the bill," Chetia, who was deported to India from Bangladesh in 2015 after 18 years of imprisonment, said.

Assam's Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma said "the central government has moved the bill in Parliament and now the matter is before the Joint Parliamentary Committee."