It has been over ten days of trauma and sleepless nights for many working class citizens in the northeastern state of Assam. The Assam border police allegedly in many cases backed by no legal authority and no warrants, simply swept down on all 33 districts and selectively picked up women – including those with babes in arms – and men and illegally detained them, before many of them were allegedly pushed across the international border into Bangladesh.

The CJP’s first exclusive report may be read here.

A week later, on Sunday (June 1), some respite was felt, even as anger and trauma still reigned. News and accounts of several such citizens being ‘dumped back’ into different locales in Assam with no explanation, trickled in.

There is of course no talk, not even a murmur, of reparation or compensation for what they were put through.

Members of the CJP met with and interviewed six such women whom fate had rescued. Dozens of those detained still remain untraceable – an approximate figure of those who were initially untraceable, as per unconfirmed reports, is 145.

Hajera Khatun

Over 60 years old, Hajera Khatun is the daughter of Kurpan Ali and the wife of Sangser Ali from the Bhalluki village which falls under the jurisdiction of the Barpeta road police station in Barpeta district.

This Bengali-speaking Muslim woman, who is diabetic, was allegedly forcefully and illegally detained by the Assam border police on May 25. She was taken to an unknown place.

Khatun was not unfamiliar with being detained. She was once detained in one of Assam’s dreaded detention camps – women are kept at Kokrajhar – and was released on temporary bail in 2021. Her case is pending in the Gauhati high court and it is of significance that under the high court’s directives, she could not have been deported. Yet she was. The CJP has accessed a copy of her documents.

Like dozens of others from different parts of Assam, this poor Indian woman was taken away by the police on May 25. She could not be found thereafter. Her family members searched desperately for her for over a week, seeking assistance from the CJP’s legal and paralegal team as well. However, she could not be traced.

Finally, when she reached home on May 30, CJP volunteers, including the CJP’s state-in-charge Nanda Ghosh and advocate Abhijeet Choudhary, met and interviewed her.

When the team first reached her home, she was found to be ill due to high blood pressure and had been taken for medical assistance and treatment by her family members.

After about an hour, Hajera shared her pain, “The police simply came and told me – without giving reasons – to go to the office of the superintendent of police (SP) on May 25. I got terrified and asked, ‘Why would I go to the SP’s office?’”

She continued, “They took me away from here saying, ‘How many more days will you have to appear like this? It’s hard on you, and it’s hard on us too’. They said they’d make some arrangement [that day] so that ‘you wouldn’t have to come [to report her regular presence] anymore’ and that ‘thereafter we wouldn’t have to do anything’. That is how and why I went with them.”

“From the office of the SP at Barpeta – I’m not exactly sure – there were three to four busloads of people. Later, they took only two buses and left two behind. So many people just did not want to go, but they were beaten and forced into the bus and the doors shut.

“Then, they took us to the Matia detention camp [in Goalpara district, about 91 kilometres or a three-hour drive from Barpeta]. We spent the whole day and night without food. The next day, at around 10 am, we were still sitting in the bus. Then they took us out and gave us a little bit of rice after some time. We were so frightened, we could not even eat properly.

“After that, we thought we’d be allowed to sit inside the room where we were, for a bit. As soon as we sat down, they called us again, saying they needed to take our photos. We went, leaving our bags and money in the room where we had sat, thinking we would reclaim them after the photo session. But, after taking photos, they closed the gate of the detention centre again.

“Then they began herding us into the bus like cattle, and one person, a teacher amongst us, was protesting loudly, asking why the women were being treated so harshly and why they were being subjected to such suffering. He was even trying to stop the women from being taken away like that.

“However, despite his efforts, we were still forced onto the bus by police. The teacher who was resisting and trying to intervene was brutally beaten in front of our eyes, his eyes were covered and his hands were tied behind his back,” she fearfully described to us.

Hajera trembled, saying, “Khairul master [Khairul Islam, the teacher] was beaten so severely that he lost consciousness.” She added, “They [the Assam border police] gave each of us a packet containing two notes of that country’s currency [Bangladeshi currency]. Then we were taken to the border; they made us get off the bus and cross the border, it was so terrifying and horrible.

“They told us, ‘don’t say a word, don’t talk’,” Hajera cried as she recounted the pain of her ordeal.

She stopped and then said, “We stood there in that dreadful place all night, drenched in the rain, hungry, at the border.”

“In the morning, Bangladeshi people and police found us and they asked us why we Indians had entered Bangladesh. Then they brought us back to the BSF [India’s Border Security Force]; the police of the two countries talked all day, but no one was there for us, to speak for us. They just physically pushed us around. We just kept crying and weeping in fear of being tossed between the borders of the two countries [known as no man’s land]. Just like this, the last few days were spent in terror.

“Then, the police caught us and put us in a camp. The next morning, the police from both countries talked about us, but reached no agreement; no one agreed to take us!” Hajera added. “We don’t know how or why, but suddenly we were driven back.”

Hajera’s son said, “Last night at around 11 pm [the night of May 31], we received news that my mother [Khatun] and a woman named Sona Bhanu were both found on the Goalpara highway. I then called Jubbar bhai [a local student leader of the All Assam Minorities Students’ Union] here, we took a car and rescued my mother.”

Sona Bhanu

Sona Bhanu is a 59-year-old widow from the Burikumar village in Barpeta district, who was similarly ‘taken away’ by the Assam police on May 25 and went missing. She suddenly reappeared on the Goalpara highway at around 11:30 pm on June 1.

Her journey to this point has been marked by a long-standing dispute over her citizenship. In 2013, the Barpeta foreigners’ tribunal declared her a foreigner, a decision upheld by the Gauhati high court in 2016. However, the Supreme Court intervened in 2018, staying the high court’s order. The CJP has accessed a copy of her documents.

Her younger brother, Asraf Ali, expressed his frustration to the CJP team, “We have all the necessary documents, including our presence recorded in the 1951 NRC [National Register of Citizens]. Our parents are Indian and all of us siblings are Indian citizens. How can my sister be considered Bangladeshi?”

He highlighted a potential case of mistaken identity, alleging that a notice from the border police was initially issued in the name of “Kamala Bhanu” but was later altered to “Sona Bhanu” without explanation.

Ali recounted Bhanu’s ordeal, “The Barpeta tribunal declared my sister a foreigner and confined her to the Kokrajhar detention camp. After spending three years, three months and 13 days in detention, she was released on bail and has since been required to report to the local police station weekly.”

Bhanu herself described the terrifying events that unfolded, her voice trembling with fear. She recounted being forced towards Bangladesh by security forces, spending a harrowing night in no man’s land.

“I was bitten by leeches and mosquitoes all night, and I got a fever from getting wet in the rain,” she said, adding, “We were afraid they would shoot us dead in the dark of night, who knows?”

As per Bhanu’s account, she was driven back to India as part of the same group of people as Khatun.

Rahima Begum

About 51 years old, Rahima Begum, a Muslim woman from the Padumoni village of Golaghat district, returned to her home from the no man’s land between India and Bangladesh with the same batch of people as Khatun and Bhanu.

In a telephonic interview with the CJP team, Rahima and her son Rakib Uddin Choudhury described her harrowing experience. Just like Khatun and Bhanu, Rahima was also allegedly pushed out to Bangladesh.

Her son said, “On May 25, the Assam border police told my mother to go to the police station to answer some questions. After spending the morning there, they took her to the Golaghat SP’s office.”

He continued, “They then took my mother’s documents and they collected her fingerprints with those of some others.

“My sisters and family members were there the whole day. But they were not allowed to meet my mother. Late at night, they took my mother to the Goalpara detention camp and then to the border.

“The police, who were with my mother and others, gave them Bangladeshi notes [currency] and directed them to cross the border.”

Rahima added, “All we could see were paddy fields, mud and water. We just did not know what to do.”

She continued, “The others and I just walked between the paddy fields until we reached a village. But the people there chased us away and their border forces called us, beat us up a lot and told us to go back to where we came from.”

Jahanara Begum, Ashifa Begum and Sahera Khatun

Jahanara Begum of the Diring Pathar village under the Biswanath Charali police station in Biswanath district was detained by the Assam police on May 25 and was fortunate to be back home – after a traumatic experience – on May 29.

On May 27, one of her family members even went to the Matia detention centre and met a CJP team (including Nanda Ghosh, Habibul Bepari, advocate Ashim Mubarak and advocate Dewan Abdur Rahim) there. When Jahanara fortuitously reached home, her family members informed the CJP.

In a telephonic interview with the CJP, Jahanara attempted to describe her unimaginable experience even though she was unwell. She recounted that two other women, Ashifa Begum and Sahera Khatun of Dhekiajuli in the adjoining Sonitpur district, were also allegedly forced out of their homeland into no man’s land before reaching home. Their story is similar to Hajera Khatun and Bhanu’s account.

Unaccounted others: Also, as per Hajera Khatun and Bhanu’s account to the CJP, there were five men with them when they were returned to Goalpara at night, meaning there were seven people in their group. However, they do not know the men’s names.

Meanwhile, the CJP has confirmed reports that Khairul Islam, the teacher from Morigaon who was allegedly brutalised by the Assam border police at the Matia detention centre, was initially part of a group of 14 that had been pushed over into no man’s land, but that after this action the group was ‘divided’ into two smaller groups of seven people each by Bangladeshi security personnel, and Islam was then in the other group.

Rahima also told the CJP that with her, one more woman had been brought back to the Jorhat police station from no man’s land, but that she did not know her name.

Given the extent of the unaccountability of state authorities, human rights organisations and survivors have to use community methods to gauge the extent of the trauma.

Release from Matia detention camp

Meanwhile, CJP team member Zesmin Sultana informed us that a similar victim of allegedly arbitrary detention, Rahim Ali, was sent back to his home in Goalpara district after being kept at the Matia detention camp between May 29 and May 31, a period of two days.

He is a son of Dobiram Sangma and his mother’s name Jelmish Marak, who belongs to the Christian Garo tribe, from village Paikan Part-1 in Krishnai.

Background of the incident

From the night of May 23, the Assam police initiated a widespread crackdown across all 33 districts, detaining approximately 300 individuals, in many cases allegedly without notice or legal justification.

Families and advocates were allegedly left uninformed about the detainees’ whereabouts, which would violate constitutional and legal norms.

While around 150 were reportedly released, unconfirmed reports suggest 145 individuals – still fighting for their citizenship rights – were allegedly forcibly pushed across the border into the no man’s land between India and Bangladesh. These individuals include those declared foreigners by tribunals and released on bail.

Notably, no formal deportation orders or bilateral repatriation agreements have been disclosed, leaving the affected families in uncertainty.

On the one hand, many people are missing, and on the other hand, neither the police nor other administrative authorities are providing clarity to the families about the missing people who were taken away by the police.

Many victims’ families complain, saying they attempted to have an FIR registered at their local police stations but that the cops did not register one, following which they sent their complaint by post to the SP.

It is noteworthy that the CJP’s Assam team submitted this memorandum to the National Human Rights Commission, which was signed by CJP Assam team members, members of its legal team as well as the chief convener of the Forum for Social Harmony.

Meanwhile, although there has been no major protest, there is anger among many people in Assam. There is also a lot of discussion among people about who issued the orders and why Indian citizens – even those with contested citizenship – were allegedly sent to Bangladesh in such a cloak and dagger fashion.

If some of them were actually Bangladeshi, why were deportation norms as detailed by the Union government in the recent Rajubala proceedings allegedly not followed? Why did Bangladesh then not accept them? Most critically, where are those who are still missing? And who will pay for the trauma and torture that ordinary Indians were allegedly subjected to?

This article was republished from the Citizens for Justice and Peace’s website. It has been lightly edited for style.