Dhaka observing Assam’s NRC issue: Momen
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Sunday said Bangladesh is observing the situation regarding Assam’s NRC (National Register of Citizens) that excluded nearly 2 million people from the final citizenship list of India.
“We do believe there is no Bangladeshi in the exclusion list … they (excluded people from NRC) are not our citizens,” he told reporters after opening the Sheikh Kamal Memorial 1st SAARC Snooker Championship 2019 at Dhaka Club this afternoon, BSS reports.
Referring to last bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart S Jayshankar in Dhaka, Momen said the Indian External Affairs Minister repeatedly assured him that NRC is an Indian internal matter and it will not affect Bangladesh by any means.
“We are now just observing what is going on in Assam … we don’t have any comment on the issue,” Momen said.
The foreign minister ruled out the possibility of initiating diplomatic efforts right now regarding the matter saying “India promised us that it will not affect Bangladesh and we want to believe on the India’s promise.”
About 19.07 million people in northeast India were left facing statelessness on Saturday after the state of Assam published the NRC aimed at weeding out “foreign infiltrators”, in a process the central government wants to replicate nationwide, AFP report said.
A total of 31.1 million people were included in a final NRC, but 1.9 million were deemed ineligible, according to a statement from the Assam government, the agency said.
Only those who can demonstrate that they or their forebears were in India before 1971 could be included in the list, it added.
