Declared ‘foreigners’, 28 Muslims in Assam sent to detention centre | Maktoob

A video sent to Maktoob by a freelancer shows a group of men and women crying and hugging each other outside a police station in Assam. What was the reason? They are family members who gathered there because some of their relatives had been declared "non-Indians." Yes, "foreigners." In the same family, residing under the same roof, some members are considered "Indians," while others are labeled "doubtful voters" or "foreigners," according to the authorities. They question the logic and fairness of this process.

On September 2nd, police in western Assam's Barpeta district sent 28 Muslims, declared "non-citizens" by the Foreigners' Tribunals (FTs), to a 'transit camp' at Matia in the Goalpara district. All 28 individuals—19 men and nine women—belong to the Bengali Muslim community. They were summoned from various parts of the district to the office of Barpeta's Superintendent of Police (SP) before being herded onto a bus and sent to the detention center.

The term "transit camp" is used officially for the 3,000-capacity detention center where FT-declared "foreigners" are held before deportation. Established under the Foreigners' (Tribunal) Order of 1964, the FTs are quasi-judicial bodies headed by members responsible for adjudicating cases of individuals suspected to be "foreigners." These individuals are identified by the Border wing of the Assam police, whose primary task is to detect suspected "foreigners" and refer them to the FTs. Assam has 100 FTs to manage the cases of "D (doubtful) voters" and "foreigners" allegedly living in the state illegally.

Two months ago, the Assam government instructed the state's border police not to forward the cases of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains, and Christians who entered India "illegally" before 2014 to the Foreigners' Tribunals, citing the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act. This effectively means that Hindu Bengalis and other non-Muslims in the state will not be prosecuted by the tribunals, which are quasi-judicial bodies that decide on matters of citizenship.

The Citizenship Amendment Act -– whose passage in parliament had set off protests across the country five years ago over allegations of an anti-Muslim bias – aims to fast-track Indian citizenship for refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and have entered the country by December 31, 2014.

The NRC is a register that is meant to identify and deport “illegal” immigrants. Assam published a National Register of Citizens on August 31, 2019. Residents had to prove that they or their ancestors had entered Assam before midnight on March 24, 1971, in order for them to be included in the list.

The BJP has declared its intent to implement the NRC nationwide.

Combined, the CAA and NRC could allow the government to expel all of those deemed “illegal” migrants – and then allow Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians to re-enter, while denying the same opportunity to Muslims.

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[jajaborborah]

And that what we say violation of assam accord, everyone has to go