In a troubling escalation of border actions, Assam's authorities are reportedly pushing residents into Bangladesh, igniting controversy around citizenship rights, due process, and human rights abuses.**
Assam's Citizens Fearful as Police Allegedly Push Residents Across Bangladeshi Border**

Assam's Citizens Fearful as Police Allegedly Push Residents Across Bangladeshi Border**
Reports emerge of forced border crossings amid Assam's crackdown on alleged illegal immigrants, intensifying fears over citizenship status.**
Shona Banu still shudders at the memory of her forced crossing into Bangladesh, a harrowing experience that now echoes across Assam. On May 25, 2023, the 58-year-old resident of Barpeta district was summoned to a local police station, only to find herself taken to the border with Bangladesh alongside 13 others at gunpoint. Widely viewed as an illegal immigrant, Ms. Banu has spent years attempting to prove her Indian citizenship amidst the rising tensions over border security and immigration policies.
Recalling her ordeal, Ms. Banu described being abandoned in the no man's land between the two countries, surviving two days without food or water in a marshy field before being detained in an old Bangladeshi prison for two additional days. Following negotiations, she and others were escorted back to India, but uncertainty looms over the reasons for their treatment.
Her story is not isolated; the BBC uncovered six similar accounts from Assam, raising alarms over a systematic method of forcibly removing individuals previously classified as "foreigners." Government responses have been sparse, and claims from Bangladesh officials suggest that over 1,200 individuals may have been pushed into their territory during a crackdown in May alone, prompting heightened patrolling along the border.
While such deportations are not unprecedented, legal experts emphasize that the abrupt nature of these removals raises serious questions about the adherence to legal processes. Assam's ethnic and citizenship politics have long been contentious, primarily due to immigration from Bangladesh, and recent political actions aim to address these concerns through stricter enforcement of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
This situational intensity has increased, especially under the leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party, pledging to tackle illegal immigration. Reports highlight that the citizenship application process has left many unclear about their nationality, with two million individuals remaining unlisted in the NRC's final draft published in 2019. Many have faced indefinite detentions while awaiting legal resolutions.
Amid these fears, numerous families, like those of Khairul Islam and Abdul Latif, whose cases involve prolonged legal battles, worry about being forcefully taken again. Advocates are calling for legal reforms to prevent violations of due process, underscoring that individuals cannot be treated as mere "playthings" subjected to arbitrary actions.