‘I was pushed across the border into Bangladesh at gunpoint’

Shona Banu nonetheless shudders when she thinks of the previous few days.

The 58-year-old, a resident of Barpeta district in India’s north-eastern state of Assam, says that she was referred to as to the native police station on 25 Could and later taken to some extent on the border with neighbouring Bangladesh. From there, she says, she and round 13 different folks have been compelled to cross over to Bangladesh.

She says she was not instructed why. Nevertheless it was a situation she had been dreading – Ms Banu says she has lived in Assam all her life however for the previous few years, she has been desperately attempting to show that she is an Indian citizen and never an “unlawful immigrant” from Bangladesh.

“They pushed me over at gunpoint. I spent two days with out meals or water in the midst of a discipline in knee-deep water teeming with mosquitoes and leeches,” Ms Banu mentioned, wiping away tears. After these two days in no man’s land – between India and Bangladesh – she says she was taken to what seemed to be an previous jail on the Bangladeshi facet.

After two days there, she and some others – she isn’t certain if all of them have been from the identical group despatched together with her – have been escorted by Bangladeshi officers throughout the border, the place Indian officers allegedly met them and despatched them dwelling.

It isn’t clear why Ms Banu was abruptly despatched to Bangladesh after which introduced again. However her case is amongst a spate of latest situations the place officers in Assam have rounded up folks declared foreigners by tribunals up to now – on suspicion of being “unlawful Bangladeshis” – and despatched them throughout the border. The BBC discovered not less than six instances the place folks mentioned their members of the family had been picked up, taken to frame cities and simply “pushed throughout”.

Officers from India’s Border Safety Pressure, the Assam police and the state authorities didn’t reply to questions from the BBC.

Crackdowns on alleged unlawful immigrants from Bangladesh usually are not new in India – the nations are divided by a 4,096km (2,545 miles) lengthy porous border which may make it comparatively straightforward to cross over, although lots of the delicate areas are closely guarded.

Nevertheless it’s nonetheless uncommon, attorneys engaged on these instances say, for folks to be picked up from their properties abruptly and compelled into one other nation with out due course of. These efforts appear to have intensified over the previous few weeks.

The Indian authorities has not formally mentioned how many individuals have been despatched throughout within the newest train. However high sources within the Bangladesh administration declare that India “illegally pushed in” greater than 1,200 folks into the nation in Could alone, not simply from Assam but in addition different states. Out of this, they mentioned on situation of anonymity, Bangladesh recognized 100 folks as Indian residents and despatched them again.

In a press release, the Border Guard Bangladesh mentioned it had elevated patrolling alongside the border to curb these makes an attempt.

India has not commented on these allegations.

Whereas media experiences point out that the latest crackdown consists of Rohingya Muslims residing in different states too, the state of affairs is especially tense and complicated in Assam, the place problems with citizenship and ethnic id have lengthy dominated politics.

The state, which shares a virtually 300km-long border with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, has seen waves of migration from the neighbouring nation as folks moved in the hunt for alternatives or fled spiritual persecution.

This has sparked the anxieties of Assamese folks, a lot of whom worry that is bringing in demographic change and taking away sources from locals.

The Bharatiya Janata Social gathering – in energy in Assam and nationally – has repeatedly promised to finish the issue of unlawful immigration, making the state’s Nationwide Register of Residents (NRC) a precedence in recent times.

The register is a listing of people that can show they got here to Assam by 24 March 1971, the day earlier than neighbouring Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan. The listing went by means of a number of iterations, with folks whose names have been lacking given possibilities to show their Indian citizenship by displaying official paperwork to quasi-judicial boards referred to as Foreigners Tribunals.

After a chaotic course of, the ultimate draft revealed in 2019 excluded almost two million residents of Assam – a lot of them have been put in detention camps whereas others have appealed in larger courts towards their exclusion.

Ms Banu mentioned her case is pending within the Supreme Courtroom however that authorities nonetheless compelled her to depart.

The BBC heard comparable tales from not less than six others in Assam – all Muslims – who say their members of the family have been despatched to Bangladesh across the identical time as Ms Banu, regardless of having crucial paperwork and residing in India for generations. Not less than 4 of them have now come again dwelling, with no solutions nonetheless about why they have been picked up.

A 3rd of Assam’s 32 million residents are Muslims and plenty of of them are descendants of immigrants who settled there throughout British rule.

Maleka Khatun, a 67-year-old from Assam’s Barpeta who continues to be in Bangladesh, says she has briefly been given shelter by a neighborhood household.

“I’ve no-one right here,” she laments. Her household has managed to talk to her however do not know if and when she will be able to return. She misplaced her case within the foreigners’ tribunal and within the state’s excessive court docket and hadn’t appealed within the Supreme Courtroom.

Days after the latest spherical of motion started, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma cited a February Supreme Court direction which ordered the federal government to start out deportation proceedings for individuals who had been “declared foreigners” however have been nonetheless held in detention centres.

“The people who find themselves declared foreigners however have not even appealed in court docket, we’re pushing them again,” Sarma mentioned. He additionally claimed that folks with pending court docket appeals weren’t being “troubled”.

However Abdur Razzaque Bhuyan, a lawyer engaged on many citizenship instances in Assam, alleged that in lots of the latest situations, due course of – which might, amongst different issues, require India and Bangladesh to cooperate on the motion – was not adopted.

“What is occurring is a wilful and deliberate misinterpretation of the court docket order,” he mentioned.

Mr Bhuyan not too long ago filed a petition on behalf of a pupil organisation in search of the Supreme Courtroom’s intervention in stopping what they mentioned was a “forceful and unlawful pushback coverage” however was requested to first method the Assam excessive court docket.

In Morigaon, round 167km from Barpeta, Rita Khatun sat close to a desk which had a pile of papers on it.

Her husband Khairul Islam, a 51-year-old faculty trainer, was in the identical group as Ms Banu that was allegedly picked up by authorities.

A tribunal had declared him a foreigner in 2016, after which he spent two years in a detention centre earlier than being launched. Like Ms Banu, his case can be being heard within the Supreme Courtroom.

“Each doc is proof that my husband is Indian,” Ms Khatun mentioned, leafing by means of what she mentioned was Mr Islam’s highschool commencement certificates and a few land information. “However that wasn’t sufficient to show his nationality to authorities.”

She says her husband, his father and grandfather have been all born in India.

However on 23 Could, she says that policemen arrived at their dwelling and took Mr Islam away with none clarification.

It was just a few days later – when a viral video surfaced of a Bangladeshi journalist interviewing Mr Islam in no man’s land – that the household learnt the place he was.

Like Ms Banu, Mr Islam has now been despatched again to India.

Whereas his household confirmed his return, the police instructed the BBC they’d “no info” about his arrival.

Sanjima Begum says she is certain her father was declared a foreigner on account of a case of mistaken id – he was additionally taken on the identical night time as Mr Islam.

“My father’s identify is Abdul Latif, my grandfather was Abdul Subhan. The discover that got here [years ago, from the foreigners’ tribunal] mentioned Abdul Latif, son of Shukur Ali. That is not my grandfather, I do not even know him,” Ms Begum mentioned, including that she had all the mandatory paperwork to show her father’s citizenship.

The household has now heard that Mr Latif is again in Assam, however he hasn’t reached dwelling but.

Whereas a few of these individuals are again dwelling now, they worry they may be picked up once more abruptly.

“We aren’t playthings,” Ms Begum mentioned.

“These are human beings, you’ll be able to’t toss them round as per your whims.”

Extra reporting by Aamir Peerzada and Pritam Roy