India: Four million risk losing citizenship

Baku. 30 July. REPORT.AZ/ India said on Monday it had excluded more than 4 million people from a draft list of citizens in the border state of Assam who could not produce valid documents, a move that has sparked fears about the future of thousands in the region. Report informs citing the RIA Novosti.

Unique to Assam state, the NRC document was first prepared in 1951 to distinguish Indian citizens from undocumented immigrants from then-East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh in 1971).

The local authorities urged residents of Assam not to panic and assured that the lists are only preliminary, which means that none of the people can be arrested or deported at this stage.