The Indian government has been accused of illegally deporting Indian Muslims to Bangladesh in what human rights groups are calling a disturbing escalation of persecution.
According to multiple reports and testimonies, thousands of people—mostly Muslims suspected of being undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh—have been detained across India in recent weeks, reports The Guardian.
Human rights organisations claim many of these individuals were denied legal recourse before being forcibly removed to neighbouring Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country.
Lawyers and deportees allege that even Indian citizens have been caught up in these mass deportations. Several accounts say that those who resisted were threatened at gunpoint by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF).
Bangladeshi border guards have since returned around 200 individuals after confirming they were Indian nationals, forcing some to trek back across hazardous terrain to their homes.
“Instead of following due legal procedure, India is pushing mainly Muslims and low-income communities from their own country to Bangladesh without any consent,” said Taskin Fahmina, senior researcher at human rights organisation Odhikar. “This push by India is against national and international law.”
Bangladesh’s foreign ministry confirmed it had sent formal letters to the Indian government, urging an end to the uncoordinated pushbacks and requesting a return to previous procedures involving vetting and consultation. According to Bangladeshi officials, these appeals have gone unanswered.
Among the deportees was 62-year-old Hazera Khatun, a physically disabled grandmother from India, who was pushed across the border in the dead of night on May 25 along with 14 others, according to The Guardian. Despite holding documents verifying Indian citizenship over two generations, she and her group were forced to cross into Bangladesh under threat of violence.
Bangladeshi authorities initially held the group in a field camp but later confirmed their Indian citizenship and refused them entry. Khatun and others were then made to walk back to India, traversing forests and rivers. She reached her village on 31 May, bruised and traumatised.
Particularly aggressive deportations have occurred in Assam, a BJP-ruled state long engaged in efforts to root out so-called “illegal infiltrators.” According to activists, about 100 recently detained individuals there are now missing. Assam has a history of using controversial "foreigners tribunals" to compel Muslims to prove their citizenship—tribunals where Hindus, Sikhs, and others have been exempted.
This week, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Sarma confirmed that expulsion of “illegal foreigners” had become official policy, stating: “This process will be intensified and expedited.”
Not all deportees have been able to return. Maleka Begum, 67, from Assam, was among a group pushed across the border on May 27. Infirm and unable to walk without support, Begum is currently stuck in a Bangladeshi village after being abandoned by Indian authorities.
Similar incidents have been reported in Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. In Gujarat alone, police claimed to have detained over 6,500 suspected Bangladeshis, many of whom were paraded publicly.
Later, only 450 were confirmed to be undocumented. In Mumbai, four Muslim men were deported before Bangladeshi guards discovered they were Indian migrant workers from West Bengal and sent them back.