Indian Citizen Pushed into Bangladesh Despite Having Voter Card and Passport
Police in West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district picked up a 43-year-old Muslim fish trader, called him an illegal Bangladeshi intruder, and later forced him into Bangladesh. His family told the Indian media outlet Scroll about this. Police from Raiganj police station detained the man, Mr. Abdul Barek, a resident of Gopalpur village, last June.
Barek’s 24-year-old son, Mr. Zahidul Islam, said his father’s name stayed on the final voter list after the recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state. He also said his father voted in the state assembly election held last May. Barek also holds an Indian passport issued in 2021. Scroll checked copies of the voter list, the voter ID card and the passport. On June 2, around 3 PM, Raiganj police took Barek from his home to the Bhatol outpost. The family later brought his identity papers. Police checked them and released him, but told him to come to the station when called.
Fifteen days later, police called Barek in again. Mr. Zahidul said, “This time, the police detained him directly, took him to Raiganj police station, and then sent him to a detention camp. The police did not look at any of our papers or talk to us. They took him by force.” A few days later, the family got a phone call from Bangladesh and learned that Barek had been pushed into Bangladesh. The family has had no news of him for more than two and a half months.
Mr. Zahidul added, “The police claim my father has been proved to be Bangladeshi. But they could not show any papers or proof. How can they? My father is Indian by birth, and we have spent our whole lives here.” Barek was the only earning member of a joint family of 23 people. He works in fish farming and owns land. The sudden event has put the family in deep uncertainty and money trouble. Mr. Zahidul said, “My mother has stopped eating. How does the police dare to send an Indian citizen to Bangladesh?”
The officer in charge of Raiganj police station refused to comment, citing the Official Secrets Act. The matter came to light on Wednesday, when the human rights group Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) filed a complaint with the state home department. It demanded urgent action over Barek’s “illegal arrest, illegal detention and mysterious disappearance.” The group’s secretary, Mr. Kirity Roy, said, “A person who holds an Indian passport and ID card issued after police verification cannot be called a foreigner and thrown out of the country on the word of a part of the administration or police. If there is a dispute over someone’s citizenship, a court must decide it. In a country ruled by the constitution and the law, no person can vanish like this after being taken into police custody. The police must make clear where Barek is now.”
Since the attack in Jammu and Kashmir last year, police in several states of North India, and later West Bengal police, have faced claims of watching and detaining Bengali speakers, especially Muslims. After the Hindutva based BJP came to power in May, work has started on holding centers or detention camps in the state as part of a “Detect, Delete, Deport” policy. Scroll’s own probe found that since June, West Bengal police have detained at least 17 Muslim men and children in the same way and pushed them, or tried to push them, into Bangladesh.
