Can’t Link Every Bengali Speaker To Bangladesh, Says Bangladeshi Minister On Illegal Immigrants 

Bangladesh Minister for Information and Broadcasting Hasanul Haq Inu has remarked that all Bengali speakers cannot be linked to Bangladesh and that his government would speak on the issue of illegal immigrants in Assam only after receiving official communication from India.

“Everyone knows it is a century-old ethnic conflict in the state of Assam. In last 48 years, no Indian government has raised the issue of illegal immigration with Bangladesh; the situation needs to be dealt by the (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi government in New Delhi, which is capable of handling it judiciously. It has no relation to Bangladesh”, the minister told ANI in a telephonic interview.

When asked whether Bangladesh would be willing to take back illegal immigrants in India, he said that his government would not speak on the matter until it received Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) copy from India.

The issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam and rest of India has led to a political controversy after second draft of NRC was released on Monday (31 July). The draft excluded over 40 lakh of the 3.29 crore state population who will be given one month to raise requests to be included into the NRC.