Hassan Ali, a 31-year-old resident of Nagaon district in Assam, lives each day in mounting anxiety over his 58-year-old father, Taher Ali. Amid the biting cold of January, Hassan constantly worries about how his elderly father is surviving alone—and whether he is even safe.
In an interview with The Scroll, Hassan revealed that over the past eight months, his father, a farmer, has been forcibly pushed into the no-man’s land along the India–Bangladesh border at least three times by Indian authorities. Hassan himself, a vegetable vendor by profession, has tried twice to accompany his father into Bangladesh, but both times the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) turned him back.
Taher Ali has been declared a “foreigner” by Assam’s Foreigners Tribunal after failing to prove his Indian citizenship, despite having lived his entire life in Assam. Human rights groups and legal experts allege that the tribunals have frequently canceled the citizenship of thousands without giving them a proper hearing. Taher Ali is just one among many caught in this bureaucratic and legal trap.
Legally, those who lose in the Foreigners Tribunal can appeal to higher courts, and in most cases, people were rarely deported to Bangladesh before May 2024, since there was no concrete proof of their Bangladeshi nationality.
The situation took a darker turn after May last year. Allegations emerged that Assam’s BJP-led government was bypassing legal deportation processes, forcibly sending “declared foreigners” across the border into Bangladesh under the cover of night. The Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, has applied a law dating back to 1950 to justify these actions.
From November onwards, the state government intensified its approach, ordering 22 declared foreigners to leave India within 24 hours, effectively denying families the chance to seek judicial relief.
However, Bangladesh has refused to accept these individuals, creating a vicious cycle of “push-ins” from India and “push-backs” from Bangladesh. Taher Ali is far from alone. Investigations by The Scroll revealed that at least seven Assam residents were forcibly sent to Bangladesh since 19 December last year. When BGB prevented their entry, five of them returned to India after five days—only to be sent again. Video evidence from Kurigram district on 28 December shows several of them, with four reportedly in Bangladesh police custody. Another individual, like Taher Ali, has been sent to Bangladesh three times by Indian authorities.
Requests for clarification from India’s border forces and the Ministry of Home Affairs went unanswered—raising questions about whether the 1950 law was properly applied or whether the individuals’ nationalities were verified before deportation.
Legal experts and observers say Assam’s actions violate international law and the core principles of the Indian Constitution. Abhishek Saha, a doctoral researcher at Oxford University, remarked, “India’s actions are creating statelessness. People are being pushed to Bangladesh, Bangladesh refuses them, and these individuals are treated like tennis balls between two nations.”
With a sense of despair, Hassan Ali asks: “India says my father is Bangladeshi. Bangladesh says he is not theirs. Then which country is his? Do we even have a country?”
Delhi-based lawyer Ujjaini Chatterjee points out that the 1950 law allows expedited deportation only when an individual’s presence is demonstrably harmful to India’s security or public interest. “There is no evidence that those being deported pose any such threat,” she emphasizes.
The story of Taher Ali and others stranded on the Assam–Bangladesh border is not merely a question of citizenship. It is a stark testament to human suffering and the cruel reality of statelessness.
Source: Amar Desh.