Assam govt evicts 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families using power project as pretext
Dispur: The BJP-ruled Assam government has launched one of its largest eviction drives in recent years, forcibly displacing nearly 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families from over 450 hectares of land in Dhubri district, where they have lived for decades.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the move is being described as part of a larger pattern of anti-Muslim targeting and demographic engineering under the Hindutva-driven regime.
As reported by Indian news website, Scroll.in, the eviction operation—conducted in Charuabakhra, Santoshpur, and Chirakuta revenue villages—has affected around 10,000 people, many of whom had been residing there for three to four decades. The government claims the land is required for a proposed 3,200 MW thermal power plant by the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited, but critics say the project is being used as a cover for systematic marginalization of Muslim communities.
Tensions escalated as police forces and bulldozers arrived at the eviction sites to prepare for the operation, and residents tried to resist the forced evictions. According to reports, some villagers threw stones at the machines, prompting the police to launch lathi charges, further fueling fear and panic among families already facing homelessness.
Independent MLA and Raijor Dal leader Akhil Gogoi, who visited the site to meet the evicted families, was briefly detained by police. He termed the eviction “illegal and unconstitutional,” pointing out that the case is still pending in the Gauhati High Court.
Activists and community leaders have decried the move as part of a wider campaign by the Hindutva-driven BJP regime to displace Bengali-origin Muslims, who have long faced suspicion, hostility, and exclusion in Assam under the pretext of “illegal immigration.”
