Over 4,000 evicted after homes of 640 Bengali Muslim families demolished in Assam’s Dhubri

More than 4,000 people were displaced in Assam’s Dhubri district on Sunday after authorities demolished the homes of more than 640 Bengali Muslim families in an eviction drive, according to a report by Scroll.

The operation was conducted on 650 bighas of government-owned land in Alamganj Part-IX village.

Dhubri District Commissioner Dibakar Nath told Scroll that the authorities had issued eviction notices to people occupying 800 bighas of land. However, the remaining 150 bighas were excluded from the operation because of pending court cases.

Nath said the vacated land would be handed over to the industrial department, which had been seeking land for an industrial park for the past two years. He added that the government would take the final decision on the matter.

Claiming that people had occupied the government land at different times, Nath said some had arrived five years ago while others had settled there around a decade earlier. He also alleged that most of the residents owned land elsewhere.

Residents, however, have challenged the authorities' claims.

Videos shared on social media in recent days showed residents taking apart their houses and shifting their belongings in anticipation of the eviction operation.

Ali Chand Fakir, an 80-year-old resident, told Scroll that he had dismantled parts of his house before the authorities began the eviction.

“Today, the bulldozers flattened the three houses, trees, toilets etc,” Fakir said.

He said he had been living in the village since 1962, having moved there from neighbouring Goalpara district after erosion and floods caused by the Brahmaputra river forced him to leave.

Fakir also said that several residents had paid land revenue under the touzi system between 1972 and 2016. Touzi receipts serve as records of payments made by people occupying government land.

According to Fakir, most of those displaced have no alternative land and are now taking shelter in relatives' homes, makeshift roadside huts covered with tarpaulins or low-lying char areas.

The latest operation comes as the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Assam government continues its eviction drives across the state.

About two weeks ago, more than 1,100 Muslim families were evicted from areas in Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat districts during a two-day operation, Scroll reported.

Data from the Assam government's revenue and disaster management department and district authorities, compiled by Scroll, show that around 19,000 families, most of them Muslim, have been evicted from government land in the state over the past decade of BJP rule.