Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) The government should ensure the safety of people from the northeast, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj said here Thursday. She added that the party would take up the issue in both houses of parliament Friday.

Students from the northeast, the BJP leader said, were getting SMS threats, asking them to go back to their states.

Addressing reporters in parliament, with students from the region who came to meet her, Swaraj said: “There are Bodo students here, and students from other northeastern states as well. They have been getting threats that they should go back.”

“After Kokrajhar, northeast students are being targeted. There is violence at some places, some place there is rumour,” she said, referring to the ethnic violence in Assam that claimed over 70 lives.

Asking the central government to “ensure not a single person leaves”, Sushma Swaraj said: “Every worker of the BJP will be there to protect them. Members of ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) will be there in every university to provide security to them.”

She also hit out at Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi, who during a debate on the issue in Lok Sabha had warned of a “third wave of radicalisation among Muslim youth” due to the Assam violence.

“I am saying this with grief, but when, during the discussion on Assam violence, an MP said this could lead to radicalisation in Muslim youth, we were afraid such violence will erupt,” she said.

“We were going to raise in both houses the fear psychosis developing in northeast students. We wanted to adjourn the question hour today, but both houses were adjourned after obituary reference. We will raise the issue in both houses Friday,” she added.

The comments came as thousands of people from the northeast fled Bangalore following rumours that they would be attacked in retaliation for the ethnic violence in Assam.