Assam: 28 'declared foreigners' Bengali Muslims detained, sent to transit camp

Guwahati: At least 28 persons belonging to Bengali Muslims community in Assam's Barpeta district, who were earlier declared as foreigners by Foreigner Tribunals, were detained on Monday and sent to a foreigner transit camp, situated about 50kms away in Goalpara district.

A video shared on social media showed a group of family members of the "declared foreigners" outside the SP office of Barpeta when they were taken out on a police bus.

Faruk Khan, a local activist in Barpeta, told DH that one each from 28 families from different areas in the district were called to the police stations on Monday for some signatures, following which they were called to the SP office and were forced into the bus. "They were served foreigner notices by the border branch of Assam police and their cases were forwarded to Foreigner Tribunals, where they were declared foreigners after several hearings," Khan said.

Foreigner Tribunals are quasi judicial bodies, which were set up under the Foreigners Act 1946, to deal with cases of illegal migration. There are around 100 such tribunals across Assam to deal with the cases of D (doubtful) voters and foreigners. Such tribunals were set up in Assam following a long agitation by the indigenous Assamese to detect the "illegal migrants" from neighbouring Bangladesh. They said that "illegal migrants" have posed a threat to the identity and culture of the Assamese people.

On August 22, Assam home department informed the state Assembly that a total of 1,19,570 D-voters were there in the state, out of which 54,411 were declared foreigners by tribunals. It said 16 such persons have even been deported to Bangladesh since 2017. D-voters are also barred from casting their votes, as per an order of the Election Commission issued in 1997.

The home department also informed the Assembly that the foreigner transit camp at Matia in Goalpara, the largest such centre in the country, at present has 210 'declared foreigners'.

The 28 persons were detained amid a backlash against the Bengali Muslims following alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in central Assam's Nagaon district recently by two Muslim youths. The Bengali Muslims are referred to as 'miyas' and many including the ruling BJP consider them as "infiltrators" and "a threat to the identity of the Assamese".

BJP, however, does not consider the Hindu migrants as a threat. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said the D-voter issue of the Hindu Bengalis would be solved in six months.