Assamese-speaking Muslims likely to get 'ethnic tribe' tag

GUWAHATI: The Assam government is likely to give "ethnic tribe" nomenclature to four groups of Assamese-speaking Muslims living in the Brahmaputra Valley who were earlier called indigenous Muslims. These people do not have any history of migration from erstwhile East Pakistan.
"We have proposed to replace 'indigenous' with 'ethnic tribe' because Assam so far has no official definition of who is an indigenous Assamese," said Assam minorities development board chairman Muminul Aowal. He added that the four cummunities - Goria, Moria, Desi and tea tribe Jolha - are already recognized as more other backward classes (MOBC).
"They are about 40 lakh in number," said Aowal.
But the proposal has not included the Maimal group of Muslims, which are Bengali-speaking, in the "ethnic tribe" Muslim community. "The Maimals are in the Barak Valley and the government will consider their case later. At this moment, we are talking of only those in Brahmaputra Valley," Aowal added.