Functioning of Assam Police, Foreigners Tribunals arbitrary: Owaisi

Hyderabad, Sep 4 (PTI) After 28 foreigners were shifted to a transit camp following a Foreigners Tribunal's verdict in Assam, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday accused the Border wing of the Assam Police and the Foreigners Tribunals there of functioning in an arbitrary manner.

A total of 28 people, including nine women, from Barpeta district of Assam were shifted to a transit camp in Goalpara after they were declared foreigners by a tribunal, police said on Tuesday.

The Tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies that decide the citizenship status of persons living in Assam who are suspected to be foreigners.

Around 100 Foreigners Tribunals are functioning in Assam.

According to the protocol, these people will be sent back to their country of origin after due process by the Ministry of External Affairs, provided they do not move to the Gauhati High Court.

"The entire responsibility of this (28 people shifted to the transit camp) lies on the Border wing of the Assam Police. The (Border wing) Assam Police acts in a biased manner and picks anyone randomly and declares them foreigners. And then the case goes to Foreigners Tribunals. And the way (adopted by) Foreigners Tribunals is very exclusionary and also arbitrary," the Hyderabad MP told reporters.

Owaisi said the Supreme Court had recently said that this entire process was a "gross injustice". So, the method of both the Border wing of the Assam Police and the Foreigners Tribunals functioning there are arbitrary, he accused.

Owaisi further said, "This entire process is arbitrary. They (28 people) will be kept in detention for two years. You cannot deport them to Bangladesh and Bangladesh will not accept them," adding that their (28 people) other family members are Indians.

On the caste census issue, the AIMIM chief, citing media reports, said the Centre will take it up from September. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will do (hold) NPR-NRC along with the census.

Asked about the killing of a class 12 student after being 'mistaken' for a cattle smuggler in Haryana, he said the killers, the so-called 'gau rakshaks' are demons and asked how come they got weapons.

Owaisi alleged that the Haryana government is promoting such demons and giving them weapons. He further claimed that the cow vigilantes are being allowed to take the law into their hands and people are losing their lives.

The student was allegedly chased in a car and shot dead in Faridabad of Haryana on August 23 by a group of five suspected cow vigilantes who claimed they mistook the boy for a cattle smuggler, police said on Tuesday.

All the five accused have been arrested. PTI VVK GDK VVK KH