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Assam Civil Society group condemns crackdown on Muslims

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National Heraldpublisher-detail-arrow
30th May, 2025 14:52 IST

India’s attempt to send back ‘illegal immigrants’ from Assam is being opposed by Bangladesh. Bangladeshi leaders are calling it an attack on the sovereignty of their country and a risk to their country’s national security.

India, according to reports in the media, pushed back 67 Bangladeshis on Tuesday, 25 May, while 13 people remained stuck at the Zero Line between the countries on Wednesday, 28 May.

The Axom Nagarik Samaj (Assam Civil Society) on Friday, 30 May, has urged the state to stop the harassment of a section of religious minorities in the state. The appeal to “Stop this insanity in the name of patriotism”, signed jointly by its president Ajit Kumar Bhuyan and secretary Paresh Malakar, points out that before every election, the religious minority (Muslim) is targeted and vilified to consolidate the votes of the majority community in favour of the ruling party.

The appeal comes in the wake of Assam government’s action in pushing back the alleged Bangladeshis living in the state and send them across the border — also the cabinet decision by the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government to arm indigenous people to take on the alleged threat from the minority population.

The statement points out that the BJP has been in power in the state for the past 10 years, yet there has been peace in the state for the last 35 years and more. There is no evidence to suggest that the minority community members ever posed any threat to the existence of others. Why, then, are threats being amplified, fearmongering undertaken before the assembly election in 2026?

The statement by the civil society organisation reads:

“Are we witnessing a textbook case of fascist tendencies being practised in Assam? How long will a section of religious minorities be subjected to all kinds of atrocities and humiliation by branding them as ‘Bangladeshi foreigners’?

“They are being harassed and humiliated all the time. We have been told time and again that they are the cause of all our evil and they are a threat to our existence. How are the victims turned into victors? What a classic case of distorted logic!”

“We had a six-year-long ‘Assam Movement’ to get rid of the alleged ‘Bangladeshi foreigners’. Then overnight, AASU turned into AGP and ruled Assam for 10 long years. Thereafter came the Congress government, which ruled Assam for 15 years, when the present chief minister was in charge of the implementation of the Assam Accord. Then there was that famous declaration of Narendra Modi that all Bangladeshi foreigners would have to leave Assam with their baggage by 16 May 2014.”

“Now the BJP has been in power for the last 10 years. Nothing happened (no untoward incidents, upheavals in 35 years). Instead, the CAA was brought in to grant citizenship to a section of linguistic minorities. Come any election, [they] blame the religious minorities and do all kinds of nasty things to them and use them to win the votes of the majority community.

Axom Nagarik Samaj The brandishing a particular religion as a threat and criminalising the religious minorities has become a well-known tactic of the Hindutva brigade.

“Now they are going to issue weapons to the indigenous people against the religious minorities. Have we seen any civil war-like situation anywhere in Assam? Then why do you do this? Why promote this communal hatred and create tension among the common people?

“It is heartening that the people in Assam have generally maintained peace, except for a few minor incidents here and there, and have remained calm while maintaining amity among themselves everywhere in the state.

“We appeal to all right-thinking people, including the Opposition political parties and civil society organisations, to condemn and oppose this nefarious design of the ruling combine.”

Referring to the crackdown on minorities in Assam in the last few days, Guwahati-based lawyer Aman Wadud posted, “Indian citizens are being arbitrarily picked up, detained for several hours merely based on suspicion of being ‘illegal migrants’. Many have been released, but not before being harassed and having their right to live with dignity violated. Another group of people who are being picked up are those who have spent several years in detention after being denationalised — some for up to 10 years. They were released after two Supreme Court orders — one where the SC said those completed 3 years in detention should be released, and second where the SC brought down three years to two years.”

Yet, Assam Police appears to be defying the court’s directions.

What is worse, several people were picked up from home by the police or called to police stations from where they ‘disappeared’, per several media reports.

Days after the Assam police’s crackdown on alleged undocumented migrants, several residents from Dhubri, Chirang, Barpeta, Darrang, Morigaon and Kokrajhar, among other districts, have alleged that their family members — declared ‘foreigners’ by the state’s foreigners’ tribunals — had gone ‘missing’ after being arrested or detained by the police.

Pointing out that Bangladesh in many such cases has denied that the people were Bangladeshis, Wadud recalled that when Indian citizens were deported from the US in fetters, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar had said on the floor of the Parliament that deportation was subject to “unambiguous verification” of their nationality.

“Will the minister answer if this “unambiguous verification” has been followed in Assam?” he asked.

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