Guwahati, Jan 18 : The Opposition Asom Gana Parishad on Wednesday removed one of its general secretaries, who is an MLA, for his alleged links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.

This came to light when Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said during a debate in the Assam Assembly that AGP general secretary Nurul Hussain had met some jailed ISI undertrials with the court’s permission.

Mr Hussain admitted he had gone to meet the undertrials, who were from his constituency.

The AGP served a showcause notice to Mr Hussain, fearing the issue might snowball into a major controversy before the Lok Sabha poll as the party had taken a pro-BJP line and was already in the final stage of seat-sharing discussions.

“The party decided on Mr Hussain’s removal after it was not satisfied with his clarification,” said AGP spokesman Apurba Bhattacharya. He was removed as general secretary as well as from the party’s steering and executive committees.

The Congress minister told reporters: “The AGP should stop criticising us that the Congress is weak with the ISI as their own general secretary had met them inside the jail.”

The AGP had criticised the Congress and charged it with being soft towards ISI undertrials, saying that they managed to get bail as the Assam police had failed to file proper chargesheets.

The AGP has also formed a three-member committee, comprising Dr Kamala Kalita, Pabindra Deka and Sahidul Alam Choudhury, to further investigate the MLA’s alleged ISI connections and to submit a report on this to party president Chandra Mohan Patowary. Dr Kalita is the committee’s convenor.