Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, at a land-patta distribution event, claimed that only Muslims who came from Bangladesh cannot receive patta (government landholding records) in Assam, asserting that “indigenous” residents and Indian citizens would be granted pattas even if they were occupying government land. He said his goal was to evict each and every “Bangladeshi” who had encroached on land in the state, and described the eviction drives over the past year, targeting Bengali-origin Muslims, as the freeing of land from Bangladeshis, and declared that they will free more in the next term.