MORIGAON: The extended family of Assam’s first deputy speaker Moulavi Muhammad Amiruddin at the moment are struggling to prove that they are Indian citizens after being slapped with notices from Foreigners’ Tribunal.
Habikul Islam, Amiruddin’s nephew, told Times Of India, “Since 2012, nearly 100 people of the 400-strong extended family of my late uncle have been issued foreigners’ notice. All of them are descendants of my late uncle’s five brothers.”
One grandson and one great-grandson was already given foreigner tag by the Tribunal.
Late Moulavi Muhammad Amiruddin, a freedom fighter who during the partition had played a pivotal role in preventing Assam’s inclusion in Pakistan. He also served as the first deputy speaker between 1937 and 1946 of Assam Legislative Assembly. And irony today is his descendants received notices and some others have been declared as foreigners.
According to Land survey documents from 1930-1931 and 1968-1969 examined by Scroll.in, it was reveal that all 11 people who have been slapped with notices share a common lineage that can be traced back to Amiruddin’s father that lived in ancestral village Kalikajhari since at least 1930.
Kalikajhari, which is located 10 km from the Marigaon town, has 174 families.
The Assam government which is presently struggling to define “indigenous Assamese” in its first National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft verified names of 1.90 crore.
NRC is a register containing names of Indian citizens, which was prepared for the only time in 1951 and is being updated for only Assam to weed out illegal immigrants.
The organisation had received a total of 3.29 crore applications for the verification and remaining names will be out after they are thoroughly vetted and will be revealed in the subsequent drafts as per the direction of the Supreme Court that is overseeing the whole process.
The Supreme Court has already set the deadline of July 30 for publication of the final NRC draft.