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Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004

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National

Uproar in Assam Assembly over ISI's activities

By Sushanta Talukdar

GUWAHATI, AUG. 10. The Assam Assembly today witnessed an uproar over contradictory replies by the State Government on the alleged activities of the Pakistan intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in the State. Members of the Opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalled the proceedings for 40 minutes before staging a noisy walkout.

As soon as the House met, the Opposition members pointed out that the Minister of State for Home, Rockybul Hussain, in reply to a written question, had denied any activity of the ISI in the State. However, in another reply prepared by the State Home Department to the same question, the Government had acknowledged the activities of various ISI-backed fundamentalist organisations in the State.

The Minister tried to convince the Opposition that the intelligence agencies of the State had no direct evidence of ISI activities and hence in the reply to the question the State Government had denied the existence of ISI activities.

Opposition charge

The Opposition members, led by Brindaban Goswami, were not satisfied with the Minister's reply and accused the Government of undermining the danger posed by ISI activities. This led to a verbal dual between the members of the Treasury and the Opposition Benches, prompting the Speaker, Prithibi Majhi, to adjourn the House for 10 minutes during Question Hour.

When the House met again, the Speaker asked the Minister to conduct a probe into the whole episode and make a statement on the floor of the House tomorrow. The Opposition members, however, staged a walkout.

They called on the Governor, Lt. Gen. (retd.) Ajai Singh, and sought his intervention.

`Dangerous trend'

Later, addressing a press conference, the Opposition described the development as a ``very dangerous trend that would adversely affect the security, safety and integrity of the sensitive north-eastern region as well as the country.''

The AGP president, Brindaban Goswami, alleged that the State Government had links with the ISI and was trying to suppress information from the people on the sensitive matter.

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