One person was killed and several were injured on Thursday after the police opened fire at protesters amid clashes at the site of an eviction drive in the Betbari area of Assam’s Goalpara district.

At least two policemen were among those injured in the clashes.

On Saturday, authorities in Goalpara cleared 140 hectares of land in the Paikan Reserve Forest, displacing 1,080 families, most of whom are Muslims of Bengali origin.

Since then, the displaced families have been living in tents and makeshift tarpaulin huts. Officials had asked them to dismantle the structures.

On Thursday morning, the authorities dug up a road that provided connectivity to the settlement, which led to protests and sparked the clashes, according to the residents.

Shafiqul Islam, one of the persons displaced in Betbari, told Scroll that the police had not been allowing residents to access the main road. The displaced persons had been using an alternative road made of concrete blocks and cobblestones, he added.

“But this morning, police and forest officials came and dug up the road with JCBs [earth moving equipment],” Islam said. “The displaced people repeatedly requested the authorities not to dig the road. But they did not listen, leading to clashes. The police then opened fire.”

Chittaranjan Hazarika, the superintendent of Goalpara Civil Hospital, told Scroll that the person who died has been identified as 19-year-old Shakaur Ali, a resident of the Betbari area.

Five injured persons, including one policeman, are admitted to the hospital, he added.

The police firing led to chaos among the displaced residents, many of whom fled the tents. More commandos have been deployed in the area, and security personnel are going to the makeshift tents and asking people to leave, Islam, who is now taking shelter in a neighbouring village, told Scroll.

“Our homes have already been demolished,” he said. “Now they are dismantling the tents. Where will we go?”

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Akhilesh Kumar Singh confirmed that one person was shot dead and two policemen were injured in the clashes.

“The forest and police officials were doing their duty in the area that had been freed from encroachment, when miscreants attacked them,” the officer told Scroll. “This led to retaliatory action, including firing, by the police.”

Singh said that additional forces have been sent to the area.

Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Assam in 2016, seven persons – all of them Muslims – have been shot dead by the police during eviction drives.

In 2016, two persons were killed in police firing near the Kaziranga National Park. Two persons were shot dead in 2021 while resisting an eviction drive in Dhalpur in Darrang district, while one woman was shot dead in the Burha Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary in 2023.

Two persons were killed in September at Kachutali in the Kamrup (Metropolitan) district.

Between 2016 and August 2024, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – have been evicted from government land, according to data provided by the state revenue and disaster management department.

Between September and July, over 4,300 families have been evicted from government and forest land.

Also read: How can Indian democracy allow the open oppression of Bengali-origin Muslims by Assam?