Assam family appeals for return of woman ‘pushed back’ into Bangladesh

The family of an indigenous Muslim woman from Assam, who was sent across the border into Bangladesh earlier this year, says they are waiting for her return after learning she was found near Dhaka.

"We had no clue about her, but a few days ago, we saw in the news that she was found near Dhaka in Bangladesh. She has been provided shelter by a family there. Now, we don't know who to approach for her return," Sakina Begum's daughter Rashiya told the Deccan Herald by phone.

Begum, 68, a mother of five from Barkura village in Assam's Nalbari district, was declared a foreigner by a Foreigner Tribunal in 2012 and spent time in a detention centre before being released on bail during the Covid-19 pandemic, reports the Deccan Herald.

On May 25 this year, police asked her to report as part of routine appearances linked to her case. Instead, she was taken to a Border Security Force (BSF) camp and handed over the next day, along with six others, to personnel at the India-Bangladesh border in Dhubri district, according to a July affidavit filed by the Assam Home Department in the Gauhati High Court.

"Ma (mother) did not return, so we went to the police station and later to the detention centre at Goalpara. But policemen there did not help us," Rashiya said.

Begum is from the Garia community, one of five Muslim groups recognised as indigenous by the Assam government in 2022. Her late husband was a Bengali-speaking Muslim, though, according to the family, no case was filed against him.

"My mother is not a Miya Muslim," Rashiya said, using a local term often applied pejoratively to Bengali-origin Muslims in the state.

The All Bodo Territorial Council Minority Students' Union (ABMSU), which has filed a petition in the High Court seeking information on people sent across the border, said Begum's case will be raised in the next hearing.

"Now that she has been found near Dhaka, we will take the legal step before the next hearing of the case next month," ABMSU president Taison Hussain said. "We came to know about her through a BBC journalist."

Hussain said Begum's family had sold their land to pay for legal expenses and now lives in rented accommodation.

"We appeal to the Assam government to take steps to bring her back as she is an indigenous Muslim person," he said.

Rajib Choudhary, spokesperson of the Sadou Asom Garia Jatiya Parishad, also urged the state government to intervene.