The BJP held state-wide protests in Assam on Saturday demanding National Register of Citizens (NRC) update pilot project in Barpeta and Kamrup districts be resumed immediately and blamed vested interests for stalling it. A BJP delegation submitted a memorandum to Governor J B Patnaik at the Raj Bhavan to ask the state government to restart the NRC pilot project in Barpeta district and Chaygaon in Kamrup (Rural) district.

They also demanded a roadmap for updating of the NRC in the state so that it was not confined to one pilot project.

The delegation also demanded arrest and punishment of those responsible for arson and rioting at Barpeta on Monday in which four All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU) activists were killed and 50 others injured in police firing.

"The demographic change in Assam, driven largely by unchecked illegal migration was hurtling the state in a direction where all kinds of social and political tension will germinate and thrive. This is inimical to our national interest," the BJP said.

Charging vested interests of encouraging and supporting illegal migration and opposing updating of the NRC, BJP spokesman Kulendra Daulagopu asserted before reporters, "it came as no surprise that AAMSU in the guise of popular protest precipitated a law and order situation in Barpeta".

"Equally, it came as no surprise when the state government promptly suspended the NRC updation process thereafter," he added.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has said the NRC updating work had been only temporarily suspended suspecting instigation by some subversive forces.

Legislators from minority dominated Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF) also met the Governor on Saturday but they did not speak to the waiting reporters.

Trouble had erupted in Barpeta when a group of AAMSU activists set ablaze a building in a bid to stop updating of the NRC in progress inside the deputy commissioner's office.

When the irate mob pelted stones and set ablaze a building inside the office premises, the police resorted to firing and killed three student activists on the spot. Another succumbed to his injury in hospital.