Assam minor girl commits suicide, while family says NRC new list is to be blamed on

Guwahati: As soon as the additional list to draft NRC is published in Assam, aftereffects have started being prominent in the state. The first shocking incident that has come to light and is alleged to have happened due to the new release of the list is the suicide of a minor girl. This is shocking and unbelievable though, but as her friends and relatives have stated, the girl has taken this ultimate decision of ending her life solely because her name did not get a place in the newly released list.

She was Noor Nahar Begum, a 14-year-old girl living in Assam's Darrang who hanged herself with the dupatta she was wearing. As stated by her relatives and members of a students' organization, the updated list of National Register of Citizens (NRC) did not include her name this time. Notably, her name was not published in the previously released NRC draft as well.

As stated by one of her relatives, "Her name was not included in the draft NRC published by Assam government last year. However, she was sure that her name will appear in the final NRC. Today, when the Assam government published an additional draft list of exclusion, Noor and her family took it to be the final NRC. Noor took the extreme step after her father went to the NRC seva Kendra at Roumari and failed to find her name in the list and told her this over the phone."

Neither the girl nor her family was aware that the newly published additional list is not the final list of NRC and a final list is yet to be declared on July 31. The fact that non-inclusion of her name in the list actually enhances the chance of her name being included in the final NRC was not known to her family.

All Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU) leader Abdul Hai after visiting the family of the girl, alleges "There is so much confusion over the NRC process and the government has failed to ensure proper publicity regarding the process, which has led to the incident."

The police, on the other hand, have something else to say. Darrang Superintendent of Police, Amrit Bhuyan says that there is no link between the girl’s suicide and the NRC. He added that an investigation into the matter is on to ascertain the cause of the death.

Also read: 1,02,462 People Excluded From Complete Draft NRC