Assam: Ex-teacher sent to Bangladesh as govt adopts 'push back' route for 'illegal immigrants'

51-year-old Kahirul Islam, a government school in Assam, was sent to Bangladesh, and the family got to know about it through a social media video uploaded by a Bangladeshi journalist.

As per an Indian Express report, a family from Assam, has alleged that security forces picked up one of their family members from home and 'pushed' him into Bangladesh.

The family's citizenship case is still being heard by the Supreme Court, the report added.

51-year-old Kahirul Islam, a government school teacher in Assam, was sent to Bangladesh, and the family got to know about it through a social media video uploaded by a Bangladeshi journalist.

The publication spoke to Islam’s wife, Rita Khanam, and daughter, Afreen, and stated that both confirmed that he is the person in the video.

The video coincides with tensions on the Indo-Bangladesh Border along Assam’s Mankachar and Bangladesh’s Kurigram district between the BSF and the Border Guard Bangladesh, the publication stated.

Islam had been declared a foreigner by a Foreigners Tribunal in 2016, and his appeal against the order is being heard in the Supreme Court, the report said, quoting his lawyer.

The local police had detained nine people from the Morigaon district on May 23, and all of them had been declared foreigners by the Foreigners Tribunals in the state, and Islam was of them.

The publication quoting his wife said, “The police came to our house late on May 23, after 11 pm. They told us that he was being taken for some reports. After that, we only got the news that he had been taken to the Matia detention camp. But we didn’t know what exactly was happening. And today, we saw the video of him from Bangladesh.”

After Islam was declared a foreigner in 2016, he had appealed against this order in the Gauhati High Court. The court upheld the tribunal order in 2018, and Islam was placed under detention for two years in the Tezpur Central Jail, the report further said.

The government school where Islam worked as a teacher did not re-engage him after his detention, the publication said, quoting his family.

Islam, along with his three siblings, who had also been declared foreigners, petitioned the Supreme Court against the orders through a Special Leave Petition filed in 2018, after his case was dismissed by the High Court.

Following a general Supreme Court order directing to release of individuals in detention for over two years, Islam was released on bail in 2020.

The publication further added that on October 2023, while disposing of an interlocutory appeal connected to the case, the Supreme Court bench, headed by then Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud , had issued an interim direction “to the effect that no coercive steps shall be taken against them,” while referring to Islam’s three siblings, who the authorities had not detained.

About Islam, the publication quoting the court said, “Counsel for the petitioner submits that the first petitioner has already been released from the detention centre after two years following the general direction of this Court."

A Supreme Court bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Prasanna B Varale, on December 17, 2024, during the last hearing, ordered that it be tagged with “SLP (C) No. 4239 and connected cases”, the report added.

“Leave granted. Hearing expedited. Original record from the stage of Tribunal be summoned. Interim order(s) granted earlier to continue,” the order stated, as mentioned by the publication.

Islam's case is now part of many similar citizenship matters, which have been tagged together, and the court shall hear them in due course of time.

In the wee hours of Tuesday, at least 14 "illegal migrants" were pushed into Bangladesh by BSF personnel in western Assam's South Salmara Mankachar district. Most of them were reportedly picked up by border police from their homes miles away, taken to the country's biggest foreigner detention camp at Matia in Goalpara and later pushed through the border.

The victims, all Bengali speaking Muslims, remained stranded on the zero line for hours as Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) refused them entry into Bangladesh. Hours later, they were reportedly provided shelters in a nearby camp.

Several such persons were similarly pushed into Bangladesh in the past few weeks as the BJP-led government in Assam adopted the "push back" route as a solution to the state's long struggle for deportation of "illegal migrants" to Bangladesh.

(With DHNS inputs)