Chicago – June 26, 2025
The Assam government, under Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, has launched an extensive crackdown targeting suspected undocumented immigrants, with a focus on Muslim migrants. Over recent weeks:
- Police and Border Force personnel have detained hundreds of individuals across districts, including Guwahati, Barpeta, Dhubri, Cachar, Golaghat, and Morigaon. In Guwahati alone, more than 150 people were rounded up for document verification .
- Authorities have pushed back nearly 300 people to Bangladesh under the 1950 Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act—many labeled “foreigners” by tribunals .
- Reports suggest Assam police are deporting individuals to a “no‑man’s land” between India and Bangladesh, raising humanitarian and diplomatic concerns .
Civil society groups have denounced the crackdown as discriminatory, particularly against Indian Muslims. The All Assam Minority Students’ Union warns that Indian citizens are being wrongly detained and threatened. The Assam Civil Society group demanded an immediate halt to such actions, calling them “insanity in the name of patriotism” .
Chief Minister Sarma insists the campaign is legally grounded and cites national security, Supreme Court directives, and demographic management as justifications .
The tensions have gotten worse since 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power for the first time in Assam. More than a third of the state’s 31 million population is Muslim – the highest percentage among Indian states.
