A student organisation of Assam’s Barak Valley on Sunday said it would continue to raise its voice in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, a day after Ulfa (Independent) sought to project a blast in Guwahati as a warning to Bengali organisations campaigning for settling Hindu Bangladeshis in Assam and opposing the NRC update.

Four persons, including a woman, were injured in the blast in Panbazar in Guwahati on Saturday, barely 400 metres from Fancy Bazar which was teeming with Puja shoppers. Ulfa (I), led by Paresh Barua, had claimed responsibility for the blast though police had not named any group till Saturday evening.

All Cachar Karimganj Hailakandi Students’ Association founder-president Pradip Dutta Roy told reporters on Sunday that acts like blasts would never be effective in suppressing the voices of Bengalis and the movement in support of the bill will continue.

“If they (Ulfa) are thinking that Bengalis will become afraid after the blast, they are living in a fool’s paradise. They are unaware of the history of Bengalis. They do not know about the sacrifices made by Bengalis for Independence. They also have no idea about the 1961 agitation in which 11 people had laid down their lives for Bengali language,” he said.

The bill seeks to provide citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who came to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan till December 31, 2014.

Roy said no force will be able to stop the passage of the bill. “The blast was nothing but a cowardly attempt to create tension among the masses,” he said and urged the people not to be afraid or spread rumours.

On the NRC update, Roy said all the 15 listed documents for the claims and objections process should be made permissible. The Supreme Court had temporarily decided to cut down the number of documents from 15 to 10. It will take a final decision on the excluded documents on October 23. “All the 15 documents were available for 2.89 crore citizens who were enlisted in the draft NRC, published on July 30. The rule should be same for the 40.07 lakh excluded applicants (who file their claims for inclusion in the final NRC),” he said.

He alleged that a large number of illegal immigrants have been included in the draft NRC. “The names of more than 95 per cent applicants in places like Goalpara, Dhubri, Karimganj and Barpeta have appeared in the draft NRC. These places are full of illegal immigrants and hence, the final NRC will not be error-free,” he claimed.

He demanded the matter be reviewed so the final NRC is completely error-free.

Sadhan Purkayastha, general secretary of the Citizens’ Rights Protection Coordination Committee, a conglomerate of different Barak organisations, demanded stern action against Ulfa (I) for the blast. He said the government should fast-track the formalities so that the bill is implemented soon.

Subhranshu Sekhar Bhattacharya, a member of the North East Linguistic and Ethnic Coordination Committee, said the blast would not have any impact on the passage of the bill. He hoped it would be placed and passed in the winter session of Parliament.

Hojai BJP legislator Shiladitya Dev on Sunday claimed that the blast once again proved that Ulfa (I) chief Paresh Barua worked against the Assamese people. Dev said if Barua “was a real hero of Assam and doing things in the interest of Assamese people”, he should raise his voice against the inclusion of names of Bangladeshis in the draft NRC in border districts like Dhubri.

Additional reporting by Mukesh Kumar Singh in Dhubri