Some of Amiruddin’s extended family members

MORIGAON: The extended family members of Assam ’s first deputy speaker Moulavi Muhammad Amiruddin , who played a key role in preventing the state from being clubbed with Pakistan during Partition, are now struggling to prove their nationality in their own land after getting notices from foreigners’ tribunals.

“Since 2012, nearly 100 people of the 400-strong extended family of my late uncle have been issued foreigners’ notice. All of them are descendants of my late uncle’s five brothers,” said Habikul Islam, Amiruddin’s nephew. He added that one grandson and great grandson of Amiruddin were declared foreigners this year.

Amiruddin, an Independent MLA who represented the then Nowgong Mohhemedan East constituency, served as a deputy speaker between April 1937 and 1946. He along with three other Jamiat Ulema E Hind-backed Muslim legislators had supported then Premier Gopinath Bordoloi (September 1938 to November 1939) to stop Assam from becoming a part of Pakistan. At that time till 1946, barring the 14 months of Bordoloi, the Assam Assembly was headed by Premier Syed Muhammad Saadulla of the Muslim League. Bordoloi again became Premier in 1946 and got the support of Amiruddin to keep Assam within India.

“My uncle used to tell us how he and three other Muslim legislators, all backed by Jamiat, rejected the Muslim League’s plan to club Assam with Pakistan. They supported Bordoloi so that Assam remained with India. Look at the irony today. My uncle’s descendants have been issued foreigner notices,” rued Islam.

Amiruddin’s ancestral village Kalikajhari, 10 km from Morigaon town, has 174 houses. Almost all the families in the village have received notices and some others have been declared as foreigners.

Abu Taher, son of Amiruddin’s nephew Abdul Mannas, said: “I got the notice in 2016. I have been visiting tribunals with all the relevant documents since. But my case is pending. Even my wife and daughter were served notices the same year.”

