On Sunday, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made renewed charges against Assam congress president and Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi, accusing him of having been trained by Pakistani officials on a trip to Pakistan in 2013, a year before joining Parliament. Sarma wrote that the accusations were noteworthy and requested the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) to direct an effective investigation on the case.
Sarma also questioned the wife of Gogoi, Elizabeth Colburn Gogoi, a British citizen and a former employee of a climate action group based in Pakistan and later transferred to India, in a press conference in Guwahati. Both Gogoi and his wife were accused of being a threat to the nation by the chief minister and made hints to what he referred to as deeper ties with Pakistan.
The charges are almost one year after Sarma initially raised the issue of Gogoi and Pakistan ties, half a year after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had filed its report into the matter, and just weeks before 2021 Assam Assembly elections are likely to be held, presumably in March–April. Sarma declared that it was a sad day to Assam that the name of an elected MP had been associated with Pakistan but he said it was his duty as chief minister to present the facts to the nation.
He added that he became interested in the matter when he saw a photo posted on social media last year which allegedly depicts Gogoi with a group of youths heading to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi in 2015. At least, initial evidence suggests, Sarma writes, that the wife of Gogoi was employed in Pakistan between March 2011 and March 2012 and had close contacts with Ali Taukeer Sheikh, the CEO of the climate-oriented think tank Lead Pakistan.
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