Assam: Former DIG Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharya passes away at 86

Guwahati: Former deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Assam Border police Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharya, who dealt with the problems of illegal migration from East Pakistan/Bangladesh for a very long time, passed away in the wee hours of Tuesday. He was 86.

The former senior government official, who was also involved in the detention and deportation of foreign nationals, breathed his last at 4:30 am in a city hospital, after a prolonged fight with old age-related diseases.

The 86-year-old has been suffering from respiratory issues since he was diagnosed with Coronavirus. He was a reputed officer from the 1958 IPS batch.

It was Bhattacharyya, posted as the DIG of the Assam Border Police in the late 1970s, who came up with thousands of names in the state’s voters’ list, particularly in the Mangaldoi assembly constituency, identifying them as “illegal immigrants from Bangladesh”.

This act is often looked at in Assam as to have given a fillip to the movement-building up against ‘foreigners’, finally leading to the signing of the Assam Accord between the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the Indian government in 1985.

This led to his finally losing his job in the police force.

However, Bhattacharyya contested his dismissal in the court and won the case in 1996.

Bhattacharya played an active role in the liberation of Bangladesh as he had links with training two batches of the ‘Mukti Bahini’.

The Bangladesh government honored him with the prestigious Friends of Liberation War Honour in 2013 for his key role in the liberation movement of the country.

Bhattacharya was also a columnist and author of several novels and socio-economic treatises. He has written books such as ‘Betrayal of North East: The Arrested Voice’ and ‘Operation Lebensraum – Illegal Migration From Bangladesh’.

He was also jailed twice for his active participation in the Assam Movement.

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