More than 40,000 inmates of the relief camps in Western Assam’s Dhubri district have vanished without informing their whereabouts to the in-charge of the relief camps or any authorities.
Informing that the in-charge of 130 relief camps were told in writing to keep a track of camp inmates, authoritative security sources told this newspaper that the in-charge of the relief camps were also asked to inform the administration if camp inmates are going back to their place of displacement.
When contacted, the DIG (Western Assam) Surendra Kumar said, “It is true that the number of inmates in 130 relief camps have come down from 1.46 lakh to 1.05 lakh in the past few days.” He said that they are still verifying the whereabouts of these missing refugees, as they did not inform authorities about leaving the camps.
The other security agencies, which are baffling over this vanishing act of the refugees, pointed out that a number of refugees started leaving the camps soon after they were asked to fill up a form to verify their credentials.
In a printed form, the inmates of the relief camps have been asked by the administration to inform their place of displacement, land holding and other information about their presence in their respective villages.
In what has come close on the heels of an Intelligence Bureau alert indicating about 500 refugees crossing over to Bangladesh, the security agencies are worried that these refugees, who did not have documents to substantiate their credentials, might have vanished in search of new shelter in nearby districts.
Security sources said that there were reports of migration of refugees to neighbouring Goalpara and even Kamrup districts but it is yet to be verified.
Security sources did not rule out the possibility of a fear factor that they might not be able to prove their citizenship, forcing them to leave the relief camps.
Meanwhile, civil society groups have intensified anti-foreigners campaign all across the state with massive protests being taken out every day.
The student organisations are making appeal to the natives not to hire foreigners or any person with suspicious credential for daily wage works at their home.