Barpeta (Assam): On May 25, Hazera Khatun (60) and Shona Bhanu (58) – both from Barpeta district in Assam – left their homes with a rare sense of hope. They were summoned to the Superintendent of Police’s office in Barpeta and allegedly told that their long-standing “foreigner cases” were about to be dismissed.
“They told us, ‘You’ve been fighting this case for years. After this meeting, it will all be over’,” Khatun said. “We were tired and broken after fighting for many years – so we believed them. We thought Allah had finally answered our prayers,” she added.
That hope lasted only a few hours. By evening, they were locked inside a room, denied food or water, and then forced into police vehicles. They were taken to the Matia Transit Camp in Goalpara district, the largest detention facility in India for those that the government calls ‘illegal foreigners.’
In May 2025, the Assam government launched a sudden and sweeping crackdown on individuals it labelled ‘illegal foreigners’. As part of the drive, the government detained and also deported those who were previously declared ‘foreigners’. Most of them happened to be elderly Muslims of East Bengal origin.
Both women were among the more than 300 people who were “pushed back” – a term increasingly being used by the government – to Bangladesh, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed in a legislative assembly session on June 9. Sarma said the “illegal foreigners” were pushed back to Bangladesh under the The Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950.
On May 27 at dawn, 14 people including Khatun and Bhanu were taken towards the Indo-Bangladesh border and Kurigram district in Bangladesh.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.