'Weed out Bangladeshis': Tejasvi Surya demands NRC for Karnataka

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Tejasvi Surya on Wednesday, July 10, urged the Central government to extend the National Register of Citizens to Karnataka, alleging that more than 40,000 illegal immigrants are living in the state.

Surya said that illegal Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants have become a security threat to the state, and are trying to change the demography of Karnataka.

Raising the issue during Zero hour in Lok Sabha, Surya appealed to the government to "weed out Bangladeshis".

"The state government last year as well as the honourable chief minister had said that there are more than 40,000 illegal Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants in the state of Karnataka," said Surya.

"They have now taken up jobs illegally, procured Aadhaar cards, voter identity cards with the help of state government authorities. They are now posing a very important security threat to the state," he added.

Surya alleged that the illegal immigrants have been travelling to other parts of the country after NRC was introduced in Assam. "A sovereign state must protect the integrity of its borders and protect the interests of all its citizens," said Surya, concluding his speech.

The speech comes days after a fresh exclusion list with names of more than 1 lakh people was published on June 26. A case of detention due to mistaken identity also came to light on the same day.

Three years after arrest, a 59-year-old woman, who was declared a foreigner in a case of "mistaken identity", walked out of a detention camp in Assam's Kokrajhar.