Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has called upon the Assamese community to actively protest against illegal immigration and encroachment in the state’s culturally significant areas. Speaking at an event in Guwahati on Wednesday, the Chief Minister stressed that while citizens must raise their voices, they should always act within the boundaries of the law.
Sarma’s comments were made during the inauguration of the Nijut Moina 2.0 form distribution drive. He urged people in the cultural heartlands of Upper Assam, such as Lakhimpur, Jorhat, and Sivasagar, to mobilise against encroachers, stating, “If somebody tries to enter the areas that are the very foundation of the community, people will raise their voices.”
The Chief Minister highlighted a pattern he believes is being used to facilitate land encroachment, which he termed the “house-beef-mosque” pattern. He alleged that this sequence involves individuals first renting houses, followed by the killing of a cow, the establishment of a mosque, and ultimately the displacement of a traditional Satra (Vaishnavite monastery) from the area.
Dismissing claims that settlers in places like Uriamghat in Golaghat district were landless victims of erosion, Sarma said that many of them were illegally occupying vast tracts of land for commercial purposes. He also reiterated a recent warning against sheltering evicted individuals, arguing that doing so would reverse the progress made by the government’s eviction drives.
