23rd May began as any other Friday for Khairul Islam. In the afternoon he visited the police station for his weekly signature in the registry – a trip that he has released at least since 2020 when he was released on a bail from the “foreigners” of the Assam detail camp.
Around 23:30 he woke up to the unusual knocking of his small house in the Morigaon district. “It was a border police,” he said.
Within a few days, Mr. Islam found himself in the country between India and Bangladesh. He said his hands and eyes were tied to Gamchas (traditional towel) when he was transported to Bangladesh, without the possibility to even call until he was over the border.
Government teacher, Mr. Islam, 52, lives with her wife and children in the area of the Mikirbhet police station. Since 1996 he has been teaching classes 1 to 5 at the Thangble Khandapukuri LP. In 2016, he was declared a foreigner and spent a few years with an appeal to his case. Given that the Gauhati High Court rejected his appeal and his case awaits the Supreme Court, he reports to the local police station every week.
However, few expected that he would be among the thousands of “non -documented migrants” that India “pushed” back into Bangladesh. The “return” exercise began after the Ministry of the Interior of the Union asked the police across the country to identify Bangladeshi who illegally entered India and live on counterfeit documents.
The direction of the Ministry of the Interior, which came as a result of a change in the regime in Bangladesh last year, gained a new urgency after the terrorist attack of Pahalgam in April.
“I remember I’m afraid,” says Mr. Islam about her way across the border in a “big vehicle”. “I didn’t see anything but I heard.” There were at least a dozen people in the vehicle, he said. “It was terrible. Everyone was screaming. Some asked for water, some shouting they wanted to relieve themselves. The officials told us to urinate in the vehicle and give us plastic bags.”
“During the way, I was constantly considering that I was an Indian citizen, but did not listen,” said Mr. Islam. “I never thought I’d be fired from my own country,” he said, adding that everyone was handed over to about 200 to 300 Takas (Bangladesh’s currency) before they were deboards.
Islam said that the group crossed the country of no one and met local residents who informed security officials in Bangladesh. After spending about a day with officials, Mr. Islam said that the group started to get back to India. “But suddenly we started to hear shots from the Indian side. The rubber pellets burned on us. A few hours later, we realized that India was now asking Bangladesh for proof that we were the Indians.”
Then Mr. Islam got a chance to call for the first time. “Bangladesh officers asked us to call home, got documents, if we had it, and arranged to be sent. Then I just remember that I passed from one place to another until I returned home. When I got home, I found my wife to return to the district superintendent.”
“The moment I was brought back, I was taken to the office of the only thing he could say was:” That was a mistake. Please don’t think too much and you don’t feel too bad, “Mr. Islam recalled. When he tries to recover from a trauma, he says painful memories of his way across the border still in his mind.
Rahim Begum, 50, was taken from her house in the Glaghat district to the eastern border of the state, during the same week as Mr. Islam. And like him, Mrs. Rahim was also among several Indians who were caught in police intervention against illegal immigrants.
Within a few days, Mrs. Rahima crawled after unpeeed fields under the midnight sky in the ground, with about 22 fresh stitches on his stomach from the kidney stone, which had undergone the days before. She was too frightened to walk. Mrs. Begum is now in the “serious condition” at the Diphu Medical College Hospital in Assam, her husband Malekuddin Chowdhury said. “After returning, we saw that many of the 22 stitches had broken down.”
Mr. Chowdhury has not worked for several years, because he has partially lost his eyes. His adolescent sons now support the family with their daily wages. When Mrs. Rahima is recovering in the hospital, Mr. Chowdhury said he was running out to sell for her treatment. “Whatever the livestock we had … ducks, chicken, goats … We sold it all.”
Mrs. Rahima’s husband remembered that she had left her postoperative medicines and about 3,000 GBP in cash that her family members gave her. He also said that she was given a Bangladesh currency to the border point. However, while Mrs. Rahim said she was facing hostility from security forces in Bangladesh, Mr. Islam said they were nice enough to let him make calls and prove that he was Indian. Mrs. Rahim, however, also said that her return to India did not seem possible until the Bangladesh security officials were notified. “We didn’t know what was happening. One day we called the local police in Assam that we had to pick her up from there,” her husband said.
Mr. Islam returned home to his wife and children days before Eid in June. “I’m still afraid. I don’t know what will happen in the future,” he said.
Published – July 25, 2025 9:37
