Bangladeshi illegal immigrants start to flee Assam, India because of threats from anonymous groups – Manmohan Government could have avoided the chaos

Every day around 6,000 illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators cross the border and enter Assam, India. Many of these are Islamic militants with links to Al-Queda.
Right from beginning in order to get minority votes, the Congress led UPA Government in India have taken little steps to deport millions of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The local people in Assam have lost jobs, their cultural heritage and their national identity because of the se illegal immigrants. Their hatred has finally manifested towards India and especially towards Indian citizens from West Bengal.
The government and the students union signed a pact in 1985 for deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, but believe it or not, clauses on the deportation of foreigners have still not been implemented. Twenty years of inaction is taking violent shape now.
Now a new turn in the equation has taken place. According to media reports for Assam, thousands of Bangladeshis are fleeing Assam following threats by anonymous groups against migrants and a campaign asking locals not to employ foreigners, officials and residents said.
The unidentified groups in the troubled state's Dibrugarh district have circulated leaflets and sent text messages on mobile phones in the past week, warning Bangladeshi nationals to leave immediately or face unspecified action.
India has fenced parts of the 4,000-km border with Bangladesh, but officials say this has done little to deter migrants bent on leaving one of the world's poorest countries.
Assam shares a 272 km porous border with Bangladesh, a vast stretch of which is unfenced.
"Fencing along the border with Bangladesh in this sector has started to prevent illegal infiltration," said federal Home Secretary V.K. Duggal.
"Legal and judicial measures have also been adopted to deport illegal Bangladeshi settlers from the country."
"Every day around 6,000 illegal infiltrators cross the border and enter the state," said an intelligence official in Guwahati, the state's main city.
Mobile phones in Assam are being flooded with text messages saying, "Save the nation, save identity. Let's take an oath ... no food, no job, no shelter to Bangladeshis" while leaflets seeking an "economic blockade" of the migrants are also being distributed.
Congress Government could have taken appropriate actions coordinated with the Bangladesh Government to avoid these “citizen’s action and arrests”.
"Many laborers working in brick kilns, rickshaws pullers and construction workers have fled in the past one week due to the threat," said P.C. Saloi, superintendent of police in Dibrugarh.
Over the years, millions of illegal Bangladeshi migrants have swamped the tea-growing and oil-rich state in search for work and food.
Over two years ago, the government estimated there could be up to 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India, and labeled some of them a security risk.
In the early 1980s, the powerful All Assam Students Union launched a bloody campaign to push Bangladeshis back to their homeland.
Indigenous people in Assam and other Northeastern states of India who feared they would be reduced to a minority in their own land massacred thousands of Bangladeshis, including women and children, across the state.
The campaign against the Bangladeshis has mushroomed into a full-fledged uprising against New Delhi's rule and many rebel groups are still battling for independence.
The lush paddy fields and the sandy, shifting plains of the mighty Brahmaputra river that divides the countries are natural transit routes. Hundreds take rickety boats across the river, which at some places is 15 km wide, into India.
The migrants become farmhands or river fishermen in villages. In towns they are often construction workers or rickshaw pullers, and the women work as maids.
Since the latest campaign against Bangladeshis began, rickshaw pullers in Assam have gone off the road, maids have stopped coming to work and there is a shortage of eggs and chickens as most vendors were Bangladeshi. Brick kilns have been closed due to shortage of labor.
Though there are no officials figures of actual numbers of Bangladeshis in Assam, locals say their population could be six million of the state's 26 million people.
Police said most of the fleeing Bangladeshi have now moved to districts close to the border with Bangladesh.
"The police have been put on maximum alert and instructions have been given that no genuine citizens are harassed and no communal clashes take place in disturbed areas," said Rockybul Hussain, Assam's minister for home.

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