News Analysis India

Tag: Assam eviction drive

  • Muslim body cries foul as Assam evicts illegal settlers from reserve forest 

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: The Assam government on Monday launched another drive to evict encroachers but a Muslim students’ body cried foul over the alleged “selective” actions of the administration.

    The authorities used elephants, excavators and tractors as it carried out a massive drive to clear encroachment at the Lumding Reserve Forest in Hojai district.

    Official sources said there was no resistance from the illegal settlers and the drive was peaceful. The authorities deployed around 1,000 security personnel, including four companies of the CRPF.

    During a similar drive at Darrang a few weeks ago, two persons had died in police firing when violence broke out.

    The drive at Lumding, being carried out at the direction of the Gauhati High Court, will continue till Tuesday. On September 30 this year, the court had directed the government to clear the encroachment in a phase-wise manner.

    The forest covers an area of 22,403 hectares. Around 1,410 hectares are under encroachment. Some 1,500 families, settled there, built a school, a church and a mosque. They were doing the cultivation of ginger and turmeric.

    Hojai Superintendent of Police Barun Purkayastha said many illegal settlers had moved away after being convinced by the district administration.

    “Many have vacated their houses while others are ready to leave. We are trying to convince some who are refusing to leave,” Purkayastha said.

    Some settlers had earlier moved the court, claiming that they have been living there for several decades.

    Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the encroachment was business-centric, indicating the land was sold to the settlers by the mafia. He said one Nazrul had brought people from Barpeta and Dhubri to destroy the forest.

    Meanwhile, the CPI-ML slammed the government for issuing notices to people settled on sandbars at Dhing in neighbouring Nagaon district. Claiming that the settlers relocated after being affected by the floods, the party said the ongoing eviction drives were aimed at harassing the Muslims.

    The All Assam Minorities Students’ Union (AAMSU) staged a sit-in demo at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Monday in protest against the eviction drives.

    In a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the students’ body alleged the Assam government, as a part of a political agenda, engaged itself in an “arbitrary, selective and illegal eviction” of genuine Indians without verifying historical reality, thereby forcing these people to live a “beastly nomadic life”.

    “A large section of the religious minority community settled on the banks of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, ushering an era of the agricultural revolution. However, they also face the wrath of the rivers as hundreds of hectares of land get submerged due to devastating floods and erosion leading to frequent migration,” the AAMSU said.

    It said the government was duty-bound to provide basic amenities of life and rehabilitate these displaced families.

  • ‘Unfortunate. Khun jameen par gir gaya’: HC on violence during Assam eviction drive

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has directed the Assam government to file a detailed affidavit on the September 23 eviction drive in Darrang during which two persons were killed in police firing.

    Hearing two public interest litigations – one filed by the leader of Opposition, Debabrata Saikia of the Congress and another by the court taking suo motu cognisance of the incident, a division bench of Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Soumitra Saikia said it was unfortunate that blood spilled on the ground.

    “It is a tragedy. Lives were lost. Khun jameen par gir gaya (blood spilled on the ground),” the Chief Justice observed.

    Earlier, a viral video showed a photographer, engaged by the Darrang administration, stomping on an injured. The incident had triggered a country-wide outrage.

    Asking the State if it believes the National Rehabilitation Policy is not applicable in Assam, the bench directed the government to file a detailed affidavit within three weeks.

    In his petition, Saikia had stated that the people evicted were from marginalised and socio-economically disadvantaged sections, and they were compelled to migrate due to the state’s perennial problems of floods and erosion.

    His counsel advocate Chander Uday Singh expressed surprise when the Advocate General said the names of 60% of the people evicted were not on the list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

    Singh contested the AG’s claim, pointing out that the NRC list has not been published by the government yet.

    Meanwhile, the Congress hailed the court’s decision and action. “The incident of firing a lone protestor by more than 40 armed policemen and the subsequent violent action of a government-affiliated cameraman on the dead protestor shocked people all over the world,” Pradesh Congress’ media department chairperson Bobbeeta Sharma said.

    The Congress appreciated the court for seeking a detailed affidavit from the government and questioning it if the National Rehabilitation Policy was applicable in Assam or not.

    “The Congress contends that such incidents should never be a part of a civilized society. The party recognises and reposes its full faith in the judiciary and considers it the greatest strength in a democratic country,” Sharma added.

  • Assam eviction drive: Civil rights body seeks strict action, compensation to kin of injured

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: The ‘Association for Protection of Civil Rights’ (APCR) on Monday released a fact-finding report on the eviction drive at Dholapur in Assam on September 23, demanding strict action and compensation to families of Shaikh Farid, Moinul Haque, and others injured in the drive. APCR claimed three people were killed and over 12 were injured in the firing by Assam Police.

    The panel comprised five members – Senior Supreme court lawyer Sanjay Hegde, writer and author Farah Naqvi, Fahad Ahmad, Research Scholar at TISS, Delhi University Professor Apoorva Anand, co-founder of Nadeem Khan and Salman Ahmad of APCR. 

    The team also claimed that, “No policemen were killed in the eviction drive firing. The drive wanted to remove encroachment to target Assam’s Muslim minority and Bangla-speaking Muslims.” Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde said the team visited Assam and the village to analyse the ground situation.

    “The government sent an eviction notice on September 10 but the notice was not delivered. It was delivered on September 19 and residents were asked to vacate within 24 hours. Despite people agreeing to leave, the police attacked those evacuating their homes,” said Hegde.

    APCR also claimed that “the eviction drive needs to be seen in a broader political context of the Assam government under Himanta Biswa Sarma, using to pretext of removing the encroachment to target the Muslim minority”.

    The report says that families of Moinul Haque and Shaikh Fareed, who were killed as well as those who were injured recounted that the police personnel started attacking them unprovoked. The panel demanded strict action against the police officials involved in the incident. It said the government should announce a comprehensive rehabilitation plan and drop cases registered against locals for protesting against the drive.

  • Hundreds protest in Thane against Islamic scholar’s arrest in Uttar Pradesh, eviction drive in Assam

    By PTI

    THANE: Hundreds of people, led by a Muslim organisation, held a protest at Mumbra in Maharashtra’s Thane against the BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and Assam over the arrest of an Islamic scholar and the eviction drive in those states respectively.

    The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) recently arrested Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui from Meerut for allegedly running the “biggest conversion syndicate”, while the Assam government carried out an eviction drive in Darrang district against alleged encroachers, largely drawn from the Bengali Muslim community.

    The Ulama Committee Mumbra-Kausa held the protest on Friday against the arrest of Maulana in UP and the eviction drive in Assam, terming both these actions as “illegal”. A large number of women were also took part in the protest carrying placards, banners and shouting slogans.

    After the agitation, the protesters submitted a memorandum to senior inspector of Mumbra police station, Madhukar Kad, over their demands.

  • Assam eviction drive: BJP targeted people as they are Muslims, says Brinda Karat

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: CPI-M politburo member Brinda Karat said Assam’s BJP government had targeted the people at Garukhuti in Darrang district through an eviction drive as they were Muslims.

    After visiting the site and sharing the party’s findings, Brinda said the 1,000 families evicted were the citizens of India with every single document to prove it. She said although many of them were registered in the 1951 National Register of Citizens (NRC), yet, they were treated worse than the “prisoners of war”.

    “…This shameless government with a 12-hour notice came with a big police force, evicted them and bulldozed their houses. They did not care about women, children or anything and fired and killed two and injured so many. This happened for one reason alone – they are minority community members. They belong to the Muslim community,” Brinda said.

    Earlier, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had stated the eviction drive was not against any community but encroachers. BJP national general secretary Dilip Saikia had claimed the people evicted were “Bangladeshis” who came over the past few years and grabbed government land.

    The displaced people are now lodged in tents which they erected at a government-identified land on the bank of the Brahmaputra.

    “They are living in conditions which are unbelievable. There is no water, no latrine and no houses. There are no facilities. There is no food since September 23 till today. This is their condition. This is the worst nightmare of what a Hindu rashtra’s agenda actually is. It is anti-national and anti-constitutional and we will fight against it,” Brinda added.

    A CPI-M statement said no government officials visited the people since September 23. The party said the government deployed the police personnel at the site to intimidate the people.

    “We also saw government deployed tractors ploughing the land and sewing the land. Again without settling the claims, the government is taking illegal measures to grab the land,” the statement said.

    “It is a shame on the police present there that they remained by-standers when the most hateful and barbaric attack took place by a photographer, employed by the administration, who repeatedly jumped on the prone body of a victim. It is indeed unprecedented that not a single policeman has been held responsible for conniving with such an atrocity,” the statement added.

    Ainuddin Ahmed, advisor to the All Assam Minority Students’ Union, said the evicted people were being provided assistance by various Muslim organisations and NGOs.

  • Assam eviction drive: Himanta hints at PFI role, says some people collected Rs 28 lakh from landless

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: The Assam government has got evidence about the involvement of certain individuals in Thursday’s violence in Darrang district during an eviction drive against land encroachers.

    Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the elements had mobilised people and created havoc. He said they had collected Rs 28 lakh from the poor and landless families of Darrang in the last three months saying that they would convince the government against eviction.

    “When they could not resist the drive, they mobilised people and created havoc. We have the names of six people with clear intelligence that Rs 28 lakh was collected,” Sarma told journalists in Guwahati on Saturday.

    He said prior to the day of the incident, the Popular Front of India had visited the site in the name of distributing food items to the evicted families.

    ALSO READ | ‘Where did 10,000 people come from?’: Assam CM Himanta on Thursday’s violence

    “The pieces of evidence are now emerging, indicating the involvement of certain people, including a college lecturer of Assam. The government is enquiring the matter,” the CM said.

    “The eviction drive was carried out for 60 families. Where did 10,000 people come from? I think we will get a lot more explosive information once the judicial probe begins,” he said.

    According to the government’s policy, a landless person gets six bighas of land in a village but on certain conditions, the CM said. He said he had told the leaders of All Assam Minority Students’ Union in two meetings that the government would go ahead with the eviction drive and sought a list of the landless people but it was not given.

    Giving an example of how serious the problem of land encroachment in Assam is, he said the amount of land under encroachment in the state was more than the size of Goa.

    He attacked the Congress for its criticism of his government on the issue. Either the Congress has not been able to understand the language of the Assamese or it has bidden adieu to the community thinking that it is, in any case, going to be a minority in 10 years and the votes of the Assamese will hardly have any value, Sarma said.

    He accused the Congress of “exporting” people to other constituencies to try and capture those seats by changing the pattern of population.

    “They (Congress) want to weaken the Assamese and India. Barchalla and Sipajhar Assembly seats are their next targets. The encroachers in Barchalla are from Dhing and Rupahihat constituencies,” Sarma claimed.

  • ‘Where did 10,000 people come from?’: Assam CM Himanta on Thursday’s violence

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma suspects the hand of a third party in Thursday’s violence during the eviction drive at Dholpur No 3 village in Darrang district.

    “The eviction drive was nearing its end and there was no problem till Wednesday. Only 60 families had to be evicted but 10,000 people swarmed to the site to put up a resistance. Where did they come from? Who brought them?” Sarma wondered.

    He said this was the reason why the government ordered a judicial inquiry, to be headed by a retired Judge of the Gauhati High Court, into the incident.

    He lamented that the incident occurred despite his assurance to the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) that all the landless people would be provided with six bighas of land.

    “During a meeting with AAMSU leaders, I had told them that as per the government’s policy, every landless family will be allotted six bighas of land. I had also said that we cannot give land to those who own land elsewhere. They all accepted it,” Sarma said.

    He said some families were occupying land measuring up to 300 bighas. He said the land of even a Shiva temple was also under encroachment. “Do people grab the land of a temple? If this continues, the land of Kamakhya temple will be encroached tomorrow. How can we accept that?” Sarma asked.

    He condemned the act of the administration-engaged photographer, who had stomped on an injured and has been arrested since, but asked people to not judge the incident merely based on this short duration viral video. “I ask the Congress leaders to sit with me and watch the entire video footage. They will see how some 10,000 people came armed with sticks and spears and attacked the policemen,” Sarma said.

    He rejected the demand of the Opposition to suspend the Darrang District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police, who incidentally is his younger brother, saying, “They followed my orders”.

    ALSO READ | 2 killed during Assam eviction drive, CM says action came after armed encroachers attacked cops

    Earlier in the day, a Congress delegation from Guwahati visited Darrang and staged a protest outside the DM’s office.

    In a memorandum submitted to Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi, the party demanded that the judicial inquiry be headed by a sitting judge of the Gauhati High Court. It also demanded that the eviction drive is kept in abeyance until an appropriate rehabilitation plan is made public.

    “The cameraman and the police personnel, who were stationed and took part in the whole barbaric act, should also be accorded exemplary punishment. Moreover, those deceased and those injured should be adequately compensated,” the Congress demanded.

    Further, it demanded an all-party meeting along with stakeholders to strategise and plan a rehabilitation and compensation programme for the people.

    “Congress party feels that the CM Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma despite holding a constitutional post, taking an oath to serve and protect all citizens has behaved in a biased manner by constantly giving provocative statements which have made matters worse. His statement of giving full authority to police to do encounter firing had also given license to kill and has dangers of turning Assam into a police state,” the memorandum reads.

    The AAMSU and some minority-based organisations had jointly called a 12-hour bandh in Darrang where an uneasy calm prevails.

    The government, which will use the land being cleared of for agricultural purposes and imparted training to some 500 indigenous youth in farming, including piggery and pisciculture for the purpose, has decided to deploy additional paramilitary forces to Darrang.

  • Police bullet cuts short ‘bright’ Assam teenager’s life

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Abdul Khaleque is a mere farmer belonging to a farmers’ village – Dholpur No 2 – on the north bank of the Brahmaputra in Assam’s Darrang district.

    It was not just his dream but the aspiration of fellow villagers that his “bright” teenager son, Sheikh Farid, will one day educate himself and bring fame to the nondescript hamlet.

    The Class 9 boy became famous on Thursday after his life was cut short by a police bullet during an eviction drive.

    He was one of the two persons killed when a mob of protestors clashed with the police at neighbouring Dholpur No 3 village, 4 km from Dholpur No 2. “He was a bright student. We all thought he would make us proud someday but the police killed him without any provocation,” Khaleque told The New Indian Express with his eyes welled up.

    Farid was the youngest of four siblings. His three brothers slog in the field to support the family of six. Stricken by poverty, most families in the village prefer engaging their children in farming to sending them to schools.

    ALSO READ | Congress urges Assam Governor to stop Darrang eviction till rehabilitation announced

    Khaleque said he had no idea Farid had gone out to see the eviction drive. He had lost the ground under his feet when a villager broke the news of the teenager’s death. “We have a democratic right to stage a protest but the police fired indiscriminately,” he said as his wife was crying inconsolably.

    The neighbours have kept visiting the house to stand by the family at this hour of grief.

    Khaleque said a lot of locals from Dholpur No 2 village had gone to Dholpur No 3 village on Thursday, worried over an impending similar drive in their village.  “The villagers have remained tense for the past few days as they fear their village could be targeted next. So, a lot of them had gone to see how things unfold there amidst the protest,” Khaleque said.

    He said he would not have allowed Farid to go there if he had any idea about the child’s plan. “The government has taken the life of an innocent boy. We will not get peace in mind till justice is delivered,” he said.

    Moinul Hoque, 32, was the other person who fell to a police bullet. He had lost his cool after his minor daughter was allegedly beaten up by the police. He had charged at a group of policemen with a stick but they shot him down at point-blank range. “He and his family members were vacating the house when some cops entered the house and beat up his daughter. This enraged him and he attempted to attack the personnel,” Ainuddin Ahmed, advisor to All Assam Minority Students’ Union, said.

    Hoque, a farmer, was the lone breadwinner in the family of eight. He left behind his parents, wife, three children and a sister. 

  • 2 killed during Assam eviction drive, CM says action came after armed encroachers attacked cops

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Two civilians were killed and several others injured when a mob of scores of people clashed with the police during an eviction drive in Assam on Thursday.

    The incident occurred at Dholpur in the Darrang district. Eleven policemen were among the injured. An injured cop was rushed to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital in Guwahati.

    Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the police had to take action as the mob, protesting the eviction drive, attacked the personnel with sticks, machetes, and spears. He said the drive would continue on Friday.

    An estimated 800 families of Bengali-speaking Muslims were illegally occupying about 4,500 bighas of government land and the government recently decided to use the land for agricultural purposes by evicting the settlers.

    The eviction drive on Monday passed off peacefully. A lot of families dismantled their houses themselves and moved elsewhere. After a break of two days when the drive was re-launched on Thursday, the others tried to put up a resistance leading to the violence.

    The incident drew widespread protests.

    Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Assam is on state-sponsored fire. I stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the state – no children of India deserve this”.

    ALSO READ | Illegal immigrants pouring in via Tamil Nadu coast? Lapse in coastal security sees 100 people entering state

    CPI(ML) politburo member Kavita Krishnan raised questions on the police firing. “What protocol orders firing to the chest of a lone man coming running with a stick @DGPAssamPolice @assampolice? Who is the man in civil clothes with a camera who repeatedly jumps with bloodthirsty hate on the body of the fallen (probably dead) man?” she asked, sharing a video of the incident on Twitter.

    The man holding the camera was said to be working with the administration.

    Rafiqul Islam, an MLA of minority-based All India United Democratic Front, slammed the CM saying the latter planned the drive to please Nagpur.

    “God will give justice. Eviction for cultivation is fine but it should have been done after rehabilitating these landless people,” Islam said.

    State Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah condemned the “barbaric act” of police firing. “The very act of eviction is itself inhuman, especially during the Covid situation. The Supreme Court had also given a directive against eviction during the pandemic, yet the Assam government has remained adamant behaving in an autocratic manner to evict the residents who have been living in the area since the 1970s,” Borah said.

    He said the government should have arranged for rehabilitation and alternative housing ahead of the eviction drive.

    BJP national general secretary Dilip Saikia said the people were served notices before the drive. “These are Bangladeshi nationals. They settled there a few years ago after grabbing government land,” Saikia said.