The Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) has filed First Information Reports (FIRs) against Delhi-based activist and former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed in at least 15 districts of Assam, demanding her arrest for making what it described as “anti-Assam and communal” remarks allegedly scripted by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s “propaganda machinery.”
The party lodged FIRs in various police stations across the state, including Guwahati’s Dispur Police Station, accusing Hameed of attempting to create communal discord and insult Assamese identity.
On August 24, while in Guwahati, Hameed had controversially remarked: “What is the problem if Bangladeshis live in Assam?”
The following day in Delhi, she reportedly went further, saying that Assam had become a “dangerous place” and that the Assamese community had played the role of a “Frankenstein.”
The AJP had earlier alleged that Hameed maintains close ties with a senior journalist employed in a media organisation owned by the Chief Minister’s family, and that her statements were part of a calculated script to disturb communal harmony in the state.
Terming Hameed’s remarks as an insult to Assamese people and a potential trigger for social division, the AJP’s district committees filed FIRs across Kamrup Metropolitan, Kamrup Rural, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat, Nagaon, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Bajali, Barpeta, Nalbari, and Karimganj districts.
In their complaints, the AJP leaders charged Hameed with “hurting the sentiments of the people of Assam, attempting to destroy communal harmony, and trying to provoke conflict between communities.”
They urged the police to register cases against her under sections 195, 353, 356 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), along with other applicable provisions.
“The government must act immediately to arrest Syeda Hameed for her divisive remarks. Otherwise, it will be clear that she is speaking on behalf of the Chief Minister,” the AJP General Secretary Jagadish Bhuyan in a statement, said.
