GUWAHATI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday accused the opposition of turning infiltrators into a vote bank and said if BJP returns to power in Assam in the upcoming assembly elections, infiltrators will be removed from the electoral rolls and deported from the country within five years.He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi possesses the “courage, determination, and firm resolve to free the country from infiltrators”.“The support of the state govt is essential to remove infiltrators, which would never be possible if the opposition party comes to power,” he said.He further said the Election Commission is conducting the Summary Revision (SIR) to help identify infiltrators, but “the Leader of the Opposition has launched an agitation against it.” Shah said, “The country will certainly be freed from infiltrators. Under our govt, the country is becoming free from Naxalism, and in the same way, Assam and the entire nation will also become free from infiltrators.”Shah was speaking at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Assam Police 10th Battalion headquarters at Kachutoli near the city on the land that was freed from encroachers in 2024.“During the rule of the opposition party’s govt, infiltrators had encroached upon 174 bighas of land, which has now been freed from their possession by the present chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, and today’s programme is being held on that very land,” he said.“At the very place from where security challenges had once emerged, the 10th Battalion of the Assam Police — which will eliminate those challenges — is now being established,” he said.He added that the land occupied by infiltrators had posed a major threat to Guwahati, Assam, and the entire country and the “presence of these infiltrators was a serious challenge to the development of Assam.”Shah said,“During the tenure of the previous govt, infiltrators had entered the region and pushed Assam’s demographic situation to a dangerous level.The opposition party bears direct responsibility for several areas of Assam — such as Dhubri, Barpeta, Morigaon, Darrang, Bongaigaon, and Nagaon — becoming infiltrator-dominated.”He highlighted that chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has freed nearly 1.45 lakh bighas of land from infiltrators and provided govt jobs to more than 1.4 lakh people in Assam without corruption and issued a firm pledge, “If our govt is formed again in the next five years, we will identify and deport every infiltrator from the country.”Shah alleged that infiltrators had become a vote bank for the opposition and declared, “Once our party’s govt is formed, within the next five years we will remove infiltrators not only from the electoral rolls but also from the country.”Accusing the opposition of endangering Assam’s identity, Shah said, “By allowing infiltrators to enter, the opposition party handed over Assam’s fertile land to them, which harmed the identity of the Assamese community and also put its cultural heritage at risk.”
