Shona Banu, a 58-year-old resident of Assam, India, recounts a harrowing ordeal. On May 25th, she was summoned to the local police station and subsequently transported to the India-Bangladesh border. There, along with approximately 13 others, she was forcibly pushed into Bangladesh.
Ms. Banu, a lifelong resident of Assam, has spent years attempting to prove her Indian citizenship, fearing accusations of being an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh. The forced border crossing was her worst fear realized.
“At gunpoint, they pushed me across,” she recounts, tears welling. “For two days, I endured hunger, thirst, and the torment of mosquitoes and leeches in knee-deep water.” Following this ordeal in no man’s land, she was detained in what appeared to be a Bangladeshi prison for two more days.
Eventually, she and some others were escorted back to India by Bangladeshi officials and subsequently returned home by Indian authorities. The reasons for her abrupt deportation and return remain unclear.
Ms. Banu’s case is one of several recent incidents where individuals deemed “foreigners” by Indian tribunals have been apprehended and deported across the border. The BBC uncovered at least six similar accounts of families forcibly sent to Bangladesh.
The Border Security Force, Assam police, and the state government have not responded to BBC inquiries. While crackdowns on alleged illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are not unprecedented, lawyers contend that summary deportations without due process are rare and appear to have intensified recently.
The Indian government hasn’t released official figures, but Bangladeshi sources claim that India “illegally pushed” over 1,200 individuals into Bangladesh in May alone, from various states. Bangladesh reportedly repatriated 100 of these individuals, identified as Indian citizens.
The Border Guard Bangladesh reported increased border patrols to counter these actions. India has not commented. While reports indicate that the crackdown affected Rohingya Muslims in other states, the situation in Assam, with its long history of citizenship disputes and ethnic tensions, is especially complex.
Assam, bordering Bangladesh, has experienced significant migration due to both economic opportunities and religious persecution in Bangladesh. This has fueled anxieties among some Assamese residents concerned about demographic shifts and resource allocation. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has pledged to resolve illegal immigration, prioritizing the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The NRC aims to identify individuals residing in Assam before March 24, 1971. The process, culminating in a 2019 draft, excluded nearly two million residents, many of whom faced detention while appealing their exclusion.
Ms. Banu’s case is under Supreme Court appeal, yet she was still deported. The BBC found at least six similar cases involving Muslims with documentation and generations of residence in India. Four have returned, without explanation for their detainment.
Approximately one-third of Assam’s 32 million residents are Muslims, many descendants of immigrants who settled during British rule. Maleka Khatun, a 67-year-old from Barpeta, currently residing in Bangladesh after losing her legal battles, expresses her desperation and uncertainty regarding her return.
Assam’s Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, cited a February Supreme Court order to justify the deportations, stating that individuals declared foreigners without court appeals were being deported. However, lawyer Abdur Razzaque Bhuyan alleges a misinterpretation of the court order and a lack of due process.
Mr. Bhuyan filed a petition seeking Supreme Court intervention, but was directed to the Assam High Court. In Morigaon, Reeta Khanum details her husband Khairul Islam’s case, a schoolteacher declared a foreigner in 2016. Despite documentation, he was apprehended and deported, only to be revealed by a viral video. He has since returned, but the police claim ignorance of his arrival.
Sanjima Begum believes her father, Abdul Latif, was mistakenly identified and deported. While reportedly returned, he hasn’t yet reached home. Those affected express fear of further arbitrary detentions, underscoring the gravity of the situation.
Additional reporting by Aamir Peerzada and Pritam Roy
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