India’s border forces have been accused of threatening to shoot Indian Muslims unless they crossed into Bangladesh, amid reports that Indian citizens are being illegally deported across the border at gunpoint.
Hazera Khatun, 62, from Assam, said she and a group of 14 other Muslims were forced into a van by police on May 25 and driven to the Bangladesh border in the middle of the night. According to Khatun, officers from India’s Border Security Force (BSF) told them, “We will shoot you if you don’t go to the other side.” She said they were pushed across the border after hearing gunshots.
Human rights groups say thousands of people, mostly Muslims, have been detained and expelled from India in recent weeks under an intensified crackdown launched after a deadly April militant attack in Kashmir. Many of those deported are believed to be Indian citizens, but are being expelled without due legal process. About 200 people have been returned to India by Bangladeshi border guards after it was confirmed they held Indian citizenship.
“This push by India is against national and international law,” said Taskin Fahmina, senior researcher at Bangladeshi rights group Odhikar. Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said it had written to Indian authorities to protest the deportations but received no response.
In Assam, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has long pursued a campaign against alleged “illegal infiltrators,” the state’s chief minister recently said deportations would be “intensified and expedited.” A controversial citizenship survey in 2019 led to the detention of thousands of Muslims, many of whom remain unaccounted for.
Similar deportations have occurred in Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. In some cases, Indian Muslims picked up in mass raids were later found to have valid documents. Bangladesh’s border guard chief condemned the deportations as inhumane and illegal under international law.
The Indian government has denied allegations of religious persecution. Authorities from Assam police and the BSF have not responded to requests for comment.