India pushing its Muslim citizens into Bangladesh labelling ‘foreigners’

[India is pushing its own Muslim citizens into Bangladesh by labelling them as ‘foreigners’. This issue has been under discussion for several weeks. The Bangladesh government has sent a letter to the Indian government regarding the matter. Bangladesh wants a diplomatic solution to the issue. But so far, India has not responded satisfactorily. On the contrary, their 'push-in' activities are increasing day by day. Al Jazeera, an international media outlet, published a report on the issue on June 24 last. A summary of the report is presented here for the readers of the Views Bangladesh.]

Ali is 56 years old. He repairs bicycles in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. Suddenly, he was missing for four days. His family became extremely worried. There was no trace of him anywhere. After four days, he returned home. He told his family that he had spent those four days in Bangladesh. It was a terrifying experience. He had been forcibly pushed into Bangladesh. He claimed that he had heard the name of that neighbouring country all his life only as a ‘slur’. The reason for pushing him into that country was that his own country’s law enforcement agency considered him Bangladeshi.

This ordeal in Ali’s life began on May 23. On that day, the Assam police picked him up from his rented house at Kuiadal village in Morigaon district. The state government had announced a crackdown on ‘foreign nationals’. Only people from a particular community were identified as ‘foreign nationals’ in Assam. And that particular community is the Muslims.

Why did the Indian government suddenly start labelling the Muslims of Assam in this way? There is a long history behind this. Assam is famous for tea production. Since the British colonial era, many people from surrounding regions migrated to Assam to work in tea gardens. As a result, for more than 100 years, Bengali-speaking people have been arriving in Assam from neighbouring areas. At that time, there had been no partition. So, Assam and Bangladesh were part of the same country. The incoming labourers settled in Assam, considering it their own land. But over time, ethnic tension developed between the local indigenous people (who mostly speak Assamese) and the Bengalis.

This tension started to escalate from 2016. That year, for the first time, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-majority Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in Assam. But over one-third of Assam’s population is Muslim, numbering around 31 million. Assam has the highest number of Muslims among all Indian states.

Since May, more than 300 Muslim citizens of Assam have been pushed into Bangladesh. Ali is one of them. This information was confirmed by the state’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma himself. He said, “Such push-ins will be intensified. We must become more active and proactive to save our state.”

The police detained Ali on May 23. Then he was taken more than 200 kilometres away from his village, to Matia in the Goalpara district. The state’s largest detention centre for Assam’s so-called ‘illegal’ immigrants has been built there. Three days later, on May 27, Ali was gathered with a few others. Ali saw that there were 13 people in total, including five women. At dawn on May 27, India’s Border Security Force (BSF) loaded Ali and the others into a van. The van took them to the India-Bangladesh border.

Ali told Al Jazeera, “The BSF wanted to forcibly push us to the other side. But the BGB (Bangladesh Border Guard) and local Bangladeshis protested, saying they would not take us in. Because we are Indians.”

What followed was extremely harrowing. In an open field known as ‘no man’s land’ between India and Bangladesh, Ali and the others had to stand in knee-deep water for the next 12 hours. They were given nothing to eat all day. Fear and panic gripped them every moment.

A photo showing Ali and the others standing in a wetland with deep fear in their eyes went viral on social media. Imagine the scene—border guards on both sides with guns drawn, and in between 13 people who don’t know what crime they have committed! They have no country! Border guards from one country are pushing them into another, and that country’s guards won’t let them in. Hungry, they are left sitting and standing for 12 hours!

Ali told Al Jazeera, “Under the blue sky, it felt like I was seeing hell. It felt like life was leaving us behind.”

After the intervention of local Bangladeshi villagers and senior BGB officials, the BGB dropped Ali off at the border of India’s Meghalaya state. From there, he crossed through the jungle and, after a 10-hour long journey, returned home.

The Indian Muslim citizens who had been pushed into Bangladesh told Al Jazeera that the BGB had left them at the international border. From there, at least 100 people reportedly returned home on their own. The authenticity of these claims could not be independently verified. However, many said that people in ‘plain clothes’ at the border received them and later abandoned them on the highway.

On 22 April, in Pahalgam, in India-controlled Kashmir, an armed group shot and killed 26 people. India claimed that those involved in the attack were linked to Pakistan. Since then, anti-Muslim sentiment has flared up again in India. This has intensified the propaganda and campaign to deport so-called ‘illegal Bangladeshis’.