Former Indian Army personnel Mohammad Sana Ullah, who grabbed the headlines recently for being sent to a detention centre, could not find his name in the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) list which was published on August 31.
Ananta Kumar Malo, sitting MLA of AIUDF from Abhayapuri South constituency and former AIUDF legislator from Katigorah, Ataur Rahman Majharbhuyan, have also found themselves out of the list along with some of their family members.
“My name and that of my son and daughters are not there in the list. It is definitely painful but I have to be patient enough and wait for the order of the court. I have faith on the judicial system of our country,” Sana Ullah told The News Mill.
Along with him, his daughters – Shahnaz Akhtar and Hilmina Akhtar and son Saeed Akhtar – have been kept on hold as the case is going on at Gauhati High Court. The name of his wife is however in the list. He, however, thanked the NRC authorities for including the names of rest of his family members.
Sanaullah, a resident of Kalahikash village in Kamrup district of Assam, said he had joined the Army in 1987 and had also served in Doda and Kupwara in trouble-torn Jammu & Kashmir. But he was sent to a detention centre earlier this year after a Foreigners’ Tribunal had ordered that Sana Ullah had ‘miserably failed to establish his statutory burden under section 9 of Foreigners Act 1946 to establish his linkage to his parentage of Indian soil prior to March 25 of 1971’ and also failed to establish the fact that he is an Indian citizen by birth.
Later, he was released after Gauhati High Court granted conditional interim bail.
Speaking to reporters, MLA Ananta Kumar Malo said that he will abide by the rules and regulations of the system. “I am an Indian and so were my forefathers. There is no doubt about that. I do not know why my name and that of my son and grandson were not in the list. I will follow the rules of the system. I am hopeful that it will be included,” said Malo.
On the other hand, former AIUDF legislator from Katigorah, Ataur Rahman Majharbhuyan is rather shocked at the leaving out of the list. “The roots of our forefathers can be traced since several centuries. I have the land documents of 1925. There is a land document in my father’s name in 1948. But the NRC authorities haven’t seen these documents. I have submitted all the documents. And my name was even featured in the first list,” said the two-time MLA.
Along with Majharbhuyan, his daughters and son’s names were struck off from the second and final draft of the NRC list published on July 30, 2018. Though he suspected some foul play, Majharbhuyan vowed to follow the guidelines set by the Supreme Court and the Union home ministry.
