Assam evictions raise sovereignty concerns for Bangladesh, says Nahid Islam

National Citizen Party (NCP) convener and opposition Chief Whip Nahid Islam has urged the Bangladesh government to take a stronger diplomatic stance over evictions of Bengali-speaking Muslims in India’s Assam state, calling for a white paper on alleged cross-border push-ins and action at the United Nations.

“The struggle of Bengali Muslims in Assam is essentially the struggle of Bangladesh,” Nahid wrote in a Facebook post.

He said that more than 1,100 homes and 10 mosques were demolished in Assam on 17 and 18 October alone. At least 33 eviction drives between 2021 and 2026 had displaced more than 22,000 families, he said.

“Why do the government’s bulldozers repeatedly stop at the doorsteps of the same community?” Nahid asked.

He accused Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s government of targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims. He also alleged that evicted people were being removed from voter lists, denied new Aadhaar cards and pushed across the border without proper legal procedures.

Nahid linked the issue to the shared history of Assam and Sylhet. “In 1874, Karimganj and Sylhet were cut off from Bengal and attached to Assam,” he wrote, adding that people had protested by submitting a memorandum to the Viceroy.

He said that in the 1947 referendum, 57% of votes favoured Sylhet joining East Bengal, but parts of the region, including Karimganj, remained in Assam.

“For the people of Sylhet, Barak and Assam are not news from a foreign country, but news about their own relatives,” he wrote.

Nahid also recalled the Bengali language movement in Assam. On 19 May 1961, police killed 11 people at Silchar railway station during a protest demanding recognition for Bengali, he said. Further bloodshed followed in 1972 and 1986.

“The language martyrs of Barak are also part of our shared heritage,” Nahid wrote, arguing that Bengali Hindus and Muslims had stood together over the question of language.

He called Assam a “laboratory of Hindutva” and urged the Bangladesh government to publish a white paper on push-ins, reject them formally and raise the risk of statelessness at international forums.

“This is directly a question of our existence and sovereignty,” he wrote.

Nahid also warned against attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, saying communal unrest could worsen the persecution of Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam.