Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday alleged that Congress, Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind, activists like Prashant Bhushan and Harsh Mander, along with “elements from Pakistan and Bangladesh,” were working to destabilise the state.
“Some people are visiting Assam to create unrest. Harsh Mander and Prashant Bhushan have been travelling in different parts of the state. Another group, comprising Jawhar Sircar, Wajahat Habibullah and Fayaz Shaheen, is meeting minority community leaders and Jamaat-e-Islami members,” Sarma told reporters.
The Chief Minister said the government was closely tracking their movements, recalling how similar visits had taken place during the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise. “They succeeded during the NRC but this time the government will not let them succeed,” he said.
In recent weeks, the Assam government has carried out eviction drives across forests and grazing reserves, where a large number of evictees were Bengali-speaking Muslims, often referred to as “Miya Muslims.”
Sarma linked the activists’ visit directly to these evictions. “After Jamaat-e-Hind demanded my dismissal yesterday, a Delhi-based team — Harsh Mander, Wajahat Habibullah, Fayaz Shaheen, Prashant Bhushan and Jawhar Sircar — is now camping in Assam. Their sole aim is to paint the lawful evictions as a ‘humanitarian crisis.’ This is a planned attempt to weaken our fight against illegal encroachers,” he later wrote on X.
“We are alert and firm — no propaganda or pressure will stop us from protecting our land and culture,” he added.
