Authorities in Assam’s Sonitpur district on Tuesday launched a drive to evict over 2,500 families who had allegedly been living illegally on forest land, The Times of India reported.

The eviction drive is slated to be carried out on nearly 1,892 hectares of land at the Burha Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary, located on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra river, was declared as a reserve forest in 1974.

On Wednesday, eviction was carried out in the Lathimari, Ganesh Tapu, Baghe Tapu, Gulirpar and Siali areas of the sanctuary, PTI reported. “So far it has been peaceful, and no untoward incident has been reported,” an unidentified official told the news agency.

Sonitpur Deputy Commissioner Deba Kumar Mishra said on Tuesday that the drive will continue for three days. He claimed that thousands of persons had illegally occupied the area for decades.

The official said that the administration had issued notices directing the families to vacate the land two weeks ago, according to The Times of India. Nearly all the residents had left before the eviction drive began, he said.

Most of the persons living in the area were reportedly Bengali-speaking Muslims.

One of the persons whose homes were demolished, Firoza Begum, claimed that the administration had said that it would begin the eviction from February 20, but began the process earlier without any intimation.

The Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government in Assam has been carrying out evictions in several parts of the state since it came to power in May 2021. Opposition leaders have accused the government of not following legal safeguards and targeting the Muslim community in the eviction drives.

During an eviction drive on September 23, 2021, two locals, including a 12-year-old child, were killed in police firing in the Sipajhar area of Darrang district. One of the victims, Moinul Haque, 28, was shot in the chest as he rushed towards a group of policemen and was trampled on by a government photographer.

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