The Gauhati High Court has observed that an infiltrator with a Pakistani passport had contested the Assam Assembly polls in 1996.

Justice B K Sharma, in a recent judgement ordering the deportation of 50 Bangladeshis, mentioned that one of the petitioners was an infiltrator with a Pakistani passport and had contested the 1996 assembly elections in Assam from Jamunamukh constituency.

"The petitioner was in possession of a passport issued by the Pakistan government on the strength of which he travelled to Dhaka from where he sneaked into Assam," the judge observed.

The infiltrator, however, lost the polls.

There is a sinister design by the infiltrators to get their names enlisted in the voters' list and exercise their franchise, thereby participating in the decision-making process of the nation.

"If the phenomenon of cancerous growth of Bangladeshis continues, the day is not far off when the indigenous people of Assam, both Hindus and Muslims and other religious groups, will be reduced to minorities in its own land and the Bangladeshis who are freely moving around the states will intrude upon the corridors of power," he observed.

The Court came down heavily on government and police officials along with parties which make it possible for illegal migrants to have easy access to vital documents such as ration card, voters' list and even passport.