“I was pushed across the border in Bangladesh at shooting”

Seon Banu is still trembling when he thinks for the last few days.

The 58-year-old, resident of Barpeta County in Northeast, Asama in India, says she was called to the local police department on May 25 and was later taken to a border with a neighboring Bangladesh. From there, she says, she and about 13 other people were forced to move to Bangladesh.

She says she was not told why. But it was a scenario that was afraid – D -Ja Banu says she has lived in Asam all her life, but over the last few years she has been desperately trying to prove that she is an Indian citizen, not a “illegal immigrant” of Bangladesh.

“I was pushed by shooting. I spent two days without food or water in the middle of a deep knee water, loading with mosquitoes and leeches,” said Mrs. Bau, wiping tears. After these two days in anyone’s land – between India and Bangladesh – she says she was taken to what he seems to be an old prison on the side of Bangladeshi.

Two days later, she and several others – she is not sure if everyone was from the same group sent with her – they were escorted by Bangladeshi officials across the border where Indian officials allegedly met them and sent them home.

It is not clear why D -I Banu was sharply sent to Bangladesh and then returned. But her case is among a number of recent cases where Asam officials have rounded people declared foreigners from tribunals in the past – on suspicion of being “illegal bands” – and sending them across the border. The BBC find at least six cases in which people said that their family members were taken, taken to the border cities and simply “pushed”.

Officials of the India Border Security Force, Police in Asam and the State Government did not answer questions from the BBC.

The repression of the alleged illegal Bangladesh immigrants are not new in India – the sides are divided into a length of 4.096 km (2.545 miles) porous border, which can make it relatively easy to cross, although many sensitive areas are strongly kept.

But it is still rare, lawyers working on these cases say that people are taken from their homes sharply and forced to another country without a proper process. These efforts seem to have intensified over the last few weeks.

The Indian government did not officially say how many people were sent to the last exercise. But the best sources in the Bangladesh administration claim that India “illegally got into more than 1,200 people in the country only in May, not only from asam, but also from other countries. From this they said, provided for anonymity, Banglades identified 100 people as Indian citizens and sent them back.

In a statement, the Border Guard Bangladesh said it had increased patrolling at the border to limit these attempts.

India did not comment on these claims.

While media reports indicate that recent repression also includes Roharzha’s Muslims, living in other countries, the situation is particularly tense and complex in asam, where questions of citizenship and ethnic identity have long dominated politics.

The state, which shares nearly 300 km of border with Bangladesh Muslim-Museum, has seen waves of migration from the neighboring country as people move in search of opportunities or escaped religious persecution.

This has caused the concerns of Asaman people, many of whom are afraid that this brings a demographic change and takes resources from locals.

The Bharatiy Party Gianna – in power in Asam and national – has repeatedly promised to end the problem of illegal immigration, making the state national register of citizens (NRC) in recent years.

The register is a list of people who can prove that they came to Asam until March 24, 1971, the day before the neighboring Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan. The list has gone through several iterations, with people whose names are lacking, given the chance of proving their Indian citizenship by showing official documents at quasi -judicial forums called Tribunals of foreigners.

After the chaotic process, the final project, published in 2019, excluded nearly two million inhabitants of Asam – many of them were placed in the detention camps, while others appealed to the higher courts against their exclusion.

D -Ja Banu said her case was hanging in the Supreme Court, but that the authorities still force her to leave.

The BBC heard similar stories from at least six others in Asam – all Muslims – who say that their family members were sent to Bangladesh approximately the same time as D -Ja Banu, even though they had the necessary documents and lived in India for generations. At least four of them have already returned home, without answering why they were taken.

One -third of 32 million Asam residents are Muslims and many of them are descendants of immigrants who settled there during the British rule.

Maleka Hatun, a 67-year-old from the Barpet of Asam, who is still in Bangladesh, says she has temporarily received asylum from a local family.

“I have no one here,” she complains. Her family managed to talk to her, but she doesn’t know if and when she could return. She lost her case in the tribunal of foreigners and in the Supreme Court of the State and did not appeal to the Supreme Court.

Days after the start of the recent round of action, the Chief Minister of the Sarma Right cited an instruction from the Supreme Court in February Which ordered the government to start deportment proceedings of people who have been “declared foreigners” but are still kept in detention centers.

“People who have been declared foreigners but have not even appealed to court, we press them back,” Sarma said. He also claims that people with pending court appeals are not “concerned.”

But Abdur Razak Bhuyan, a lawyer working on many cases of citizenship in Asam, claims that in many recent cases the due process – which, among other things, will require India and Banglad to cooperate with the action – is not respected.

“What is happening is a deliberate and deliberate misinterpretation of the court order,” he said.

Recently, Bhuyan filed a petition on behalf of a student organization seeking the Supreme Court’s intervention in suspending what it was said to be a “violent and illegal discount policy”, but was asked to first see the Supreme Court of Asam.

In Morigaon, about 167 km from Barpets, Rita Hatun was sitting near a table that had a pile of documents.

Her husband, Hairul Islam, a 51-year-old teacher at school, was in the same group as Mrs. Banu, who is said to have been selected by the authorities.

A tribunal declared him a foreigner in 2016, after which he spent two years in a detention center before being released. Like G -ja Banu, his case is heard in the Supreme Court.

“Every document is proof that my husband is an Indian,” said G -Ja Khatun, reviewing the certificate to complete the high school of G -N -Islam and some agricultural records. “But that was not enough to prove his nationality to the authorities.”

She says her husband, his father and his grandfather were born in India.

But on May 23, she says the police arrived at their home and took Islam without any explanation.

Just a few days later – when a viral video appeared as a journalist in Bangladeshi interviewing Islam in no man’s land – the family learned where he was.

Like G -ja Banu, the Islam has already been sent back to India.

While his family confirms his return, police told the BBC that there was no “information” about his arrival.

Sanzima Begum says she is sure that her father was declared a foreigner due to a case of wrong identity – he was also taken the same night as Islam.

“My father’s name is Abdul Latif, my grandfather was Abdul Subhan. The announcement that came (years ago, from the tribunal of foreigners) said Abdul Latif, son of Shukur Ali. This is not my grandfather, I don’t even know him,” said G -bean, adding that there are all the necessary documents.

The family has now heard that G -n Latif has returned to Asam, but has not yet reached home.

While some of these people are home now, they are afraid that they can be taken again sharply.

“We don’t play,” said G -ja Begum.

“These are people, you can’t throw them around according to your whims.”

Additional reporting by Aamir Peerzada and Pritam Roy