A 51-year-old former government teacher from Assam’s Morigaon district, who was picked up from his home on Friday night by the border police, has been forced out of Indian territory along the Bangladesh border, claims a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday by a Bangladeshi journalist.
In the video recorded by journalist Mostafuzur Tara from Bangladesh’s Rangpur division, Khairul Islam alleged that he was among 14 people “pushed” into Bangladesh by India’s Border Security Force on Tuesday morning.
He and the others are reported to be in no man’s land, between the two countries.
In the video, Islam is standing in a field somewhere in Kurigram district, Bangladesh – the location was confirmed by the superintendent of police of the district, Mohammad Mahfuzur Rahman.
“I told the Assam police that I am a teacher and asked them to respect me,” Islam told the journalist. “My hands were tied like I was a thief and I was made to sit in the bus. Around 4 am, I reached here. A total of 14 people were pushed into Bangladesh by the BSF.”
A government teacher at Thengsali Khandapukhuri primary school until last December, Islam was declared a foreigner in 2016 by a tribunal.
The tribunal’s decision was upheld in 2018 by the Gauhati High Court. Islam was taken to the Matia detention centre, where he spent two years before he was released on bail in August 2020. His challenge to the High Court order is pending in the Supreme Court.
The last hearing of Islam’s case in the Supreme Court was on December 17, 2024, according to court records seen by Scroll.
On May 23, Islam was picked up from his home in Khandapukhuri village by the Assam police. He was among 14 people, all declared foreigners by Assam’s foreigners tribunals, who were re-arrested from Morigaon and Jorhat districts and sent to the Matia detention camp.
Foreigner tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies unique to Assam, which rule on citizenship cases. They have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and declaring people foreigners on the basis of minor spelling mistakes, a lack of documents or lapses in memory.
“I was born here, my father and mother were also born here,” Islam told reporters on Saturday in Assam before being taken to Matia detention centre. “I am a school teacher. I did my schooling and college here. They have framed me as a foreigner without any wrongdoing. I am saying 100 times that I am Assamese.”
In Bangladesh, Islam told the journalist that on Monday, around 3 pm, he was forcibly taken from the Matia detention camp.
A person from the Matia camp, who declined to be identified fearing for their safety, told Scroll on Monday evening that several inmates had been loaded into three buses, with blindfolds over their eyes. “The border police and central forces had come for them,” they said.
Islam told the Bangladeshi journalist: “As I was not willing to come, they beat me up severely.”
Islam’s family members confirmed to Scroll that the person in the video was him. His wife Rita Khanam broke down on seeing the video. “How can they do this when the case is pending in the Supreme Court?” she said.
On May 10, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had announced that several inmates of the Matia detention centre in Assam – Rohingya refugees and undocumented migrants from Bangladesh – had been “pushed back” into Bangladesh as part of a nationwide operation by the Indian government.
According to a report in a Bangladeshi news website, Jago News, the “push-back” along the Boraibari border in Kurigram district, which shares a boundary with Assam’s South Salmara district, was resisted by the Border Guard Bangladesh.
The report cites “multiple sources” to claim that 14 people from Assam – five women among them – are now stranded between the two countries in no man’s land.
Lutfar, the officer-in-charge of the Rowmari police station, which includes Boraibari village, told Scroll that on Tuesday morning 14 people from India were found in no man’s land.
Scroll has sent messages to the Union ministry of home affairs, the Border Security Force, the Assam director general of police and the Assam chief secretary seeking their response to the reports. The story will be updated if they respond.
A statement issued by the BSF public relations officer did not address the reports of the alleged expulsion of declared foreigners. Instead, it said that on the morning of May 27, the BSF “successfully thwarted an infiltration attempt by a large group of Bangladeshi nationals from the Indo-Bangladesh Boundary in South Salmara Mankachar district, Assam”.
