Is every Bangla-speaking poor Muslim in India Bangladeshi migrant?

[MBI Munshi]

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By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: The attitude of government agencies, both central and state, particularly police gives the answer in positive. There is no denying the fact that illegal Bangladeshi migrants have infiltrated our country over decades. But it is also a fact that lakhs of Bangla-speaking poor Muslim residents of West Bengal have become internal migrants in search of livelihood over a period of time, and can be found in various states. The pity is that these Indian citizens are also treated as illegal immigrants though they have valid election IDs or ration cards issued by West Bengal government.

So far BJP leaders have claimed that there are several crore Bangladeshi migrants in India. Now the Central Government seems to have concluded that there are two crore illegal Bangladeshi migrants. A news report in October 4 issue of Indian Express says that according to estimates sent by state governments regarding number of illegal migrants from Bangladesh living in states, their population now constitutes two percent of India’s total population. It is an open understanding among governments and politicians that by Bangladeshi infiltrators they mean only Bangla-speaking Muslim migrants. The question is: if the government has enlisted Bangla-speaking Muslim residents of West Bengal also as Bangladeshi migrants. The attitude of government agencies towards these people again gives the answer in positive.

Like in other parts of the country, Bangla-speaking poor Muslim residents of West Bengal are in thousands in Delhi. Hardly a day passes when they do not face harassment – that ends up in extortion -- at the hands of law enforcing agencies. A petty crime or terror blasts and police pounce on their clusters thinking them as ‘natural’ perpetrators.

Prakash Vihar is a jhuggi-jhopri colony in New Delhi’s Rohini area. The colony has about 200 poor Muslim families from West Bengal. Their only source of income is rag picking. Almost all of them have valid proofs of their being Indian citizen – some possessing election IDs or ration cards from West Bengal while others have similar documents from Delhi. Yet they are vulnerable to khaki terror and are living at the mercy of the police. They are frequented with police raids; some young men are picked branding them as Bangladeshis and released only after their family coughs up money.

With Commonwealth Games in Delhi round the corner they are facing another round of police torture and harassment. A couple of weeks ago a police team pounded on them threatening to push them out to make the city ‘clean’ before the Games. While the area is not on the map of Games venues they are being harassed.

Hazrat Khan is living in the colony for seven years. He has election ID both from West Bengal and Delhi. Hailing from Birbhum district in West Bengal Khan earns from rag picking. “Though I have valid proofs of being Indian citizen police brand me Bangladeshi and harass me,” Khan tells TwoCircles.net. He lives here with wife and children while other members of his family – mother, sister, brother, uncle and others – are in Birbhum. Before this colony he lived in Amar colony area in the city. He came to Delhi 19 years ago.

Kanchan Khan, a man in mid-twenties, is also from Birbhum. He is living here with his family for seven years. He too is a rag picker.

Some of the residents of this colony are from Murshidabad. This is Jamruddin Khan. He left Murshidabad in West Bengal 15 years ago and first settled down near Yamuna River in east Delhi. He has been living in Prakash Vihar for seven years. He is also a rag picker. In support of his being Indian citizen he shows a ration card issued from West Bengal government.

Why do police ignore their valid proofs of citizenship and brand them as Bangladeshi? “Because they are poor and followers of Islam” says Pramod Kumar, general secretary of Green Flag Waste Workers’ Union. Kumar lives near the locality and has been working for welfare of these residents. He says Bangla-speaking Hindu residents of West Bengal are not treated as such.

Faisal Khan of National Alliance of People’s Movement, who is working with Pramod, is planning to organize a protest by Bangla-speaking people possessing valid proofs of citizenship before the Delhi police headquarters or National Human Rights Commission. On the fact that police reject their election IDs as fake, Khan said it is on the authorities to prove their allegation. It is easy for election commission to check genuineness of an election ID, Khan said.

The residents of the locality have a makeshift mosque in the middle of the colony. Faiz Ahmed, Imam of the mosque, says these residents hail from West Bengal. Police harass them as they do not catch big people and make money from them. Ahmed, himself from Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal, has been rendering his services as Imam in the mosque for the last 10 months. Earlier he lived in Rajasthan.

Is every Bangla-speaking poor Muslim in India Bangladeshi migrant? | TwoCircles.net

[Goodperson]

India should kick illegal Bangladeshis out they can be easily identified their dialect is far different than West Bengal.
Congress government has big hand in keeping Bangladeshis.

[indiatech]

India should kick illegal Bangladeshis out they can be easily identified their dialect is far different than West Bengal.
Congress government has big hand in keeping Bangladeshis.

yeah, some of them have languages even bangladeshis can't understand. Living legellay on land donated by assam during its creation and starts living now illegally in assam and NE. They should be butted to where they belong and we should get our land back.

[indiatech]

2008

The attack and burning of villages of the people of Assam origin and the killings of the locals by the
organized gangs of Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators in Assam in the first week of October 2008 is a very serious
matter. The Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal strongly condemns it.

The Bangladeshi Muslims have torched more than 40 villages including Mangaldoi in Darrang and
Udalgudi districts and killed more than 70 people. Hundreds are injured and more than 80,000 people have been
displaced and living in camps. The Bangladeshis have hoisted Pakistani flags at various places and took out
processions raising slogans like ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. The ABKM considers it as a very serious incident.

It may be recalled that Mangaldoi is the same place where, owing to the sudden increase of Bangladeshi
infiltrators in the voters’ list for the Lok Sabha by-election in 1979, an unprecedented statewide agitation was
launched in Assam during 1979-85. It is unfortunate that the Governments, influenced by electoral
considerations, have failed to find a satisfactory solution to it till date. Today the situation has turned so grave
that thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims are attacking and burning the local villages.

It is to be noted that there are more than 3,000 villages today in Assam where the Bangladeshi Muslims
have come and settled down. They occupied lands on the river banks, vacant government lands, vast protected
forest lands and sacred lands belonging to the hundreds of ‘Satras’ (Hindu religious places). The Bangladeshi
Muslims have become the majority in a very large part of Assam and it has become difficult for the Hindu
society to live there with security and honour. Another important reason for the current conflict is the illegal
occupation of thousands of acres of ‘Bodo Tribal Autonomous Region’ by the Bangadeshi Muslims. The
involvement of Bangladeshi infiltrators in the terrorist acts perpetrated all over the country is well-known. It is a
matter of grave concern that over 20 terrorist organizations operating in N-E region are getting all sorts of
support and training in Bangladesh.

In this context, the judgment of Guwahati High Court (delivered on July 25, 2008 [WP.c.No. 1094 of
2008]) is worth mentioning in which it was stated that: “large number of Bangladeshis present in the state of
Assam have a major role in electing the representatives both to the legislative assembly and the parliament and
consequently, in the decision making process towards building the nation…..If this phenomenon continues, the
day is not far off, when the indigenous people of Assam , both Hindus and Muslims and other religious groups,
will be reduced to minorities in its own land and Bangladeshis, who are freely and merrily moving around the
fertile land of Assam , will intrude upon the corridors of Power. (Para -213)……. Influx from Bangladesh is a
regular phenomenon with the resultant contributory factor behind the outbreak of insurgency in the state. The
illegal migration not only affects the people of Assam but have more dangerous dimension of greatly
undermining our national security, about which mention has been made in Sonowal(I) Case [Supreme Court
case ] ((Para 218)……..A strong political will to free Assam from illegal Bangladeshi is the need of the hour
coupled with public activism in that direction. (Para 222)”

In the above mentioned context, the ABKM demands that the Assam government take steps to arrange
for the safe return of the Indian citizens, who were displaced due to recent incidents, to their homes and ensure
that such incidents do not recur and the perpetrators are severely punished. The ABKM wishes to caution the
central and state governments that the incidents of Assam could recur in other states also if the Bangladeshi
Muslim infiltration problem is not resolved. Therefore, keeping in view the gravity of the situation, the Central
Government should enact a comprehensive legislation on the lines of Britain and some other countries, to detect
the Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators, delete their names from the voters’ lists and deport them to Bangladesh
besides penalizing those who give shelter or employment to such infiltrators.

[indiatech]

Bangladeshis, get your butt out of assam and North East.

[SandsofTime]

@indiatech
Sounds like a lot of hindutva propaganda. There are so many loopholes in this story that renders it completely incredulous.
For the sake of discussion, lets assume that there are hundreds of thousands of such illegal immigrants and then analyze your story.

The Bangladeshi Muslims have torched more than 40 villages including Mangaldoi in Darrang and
Udalgudi districts and killed more than 70 people.

And where did you get this information. The illegal immigrants would have to be mindless nuts to do something like this. Is there any benefit for them in burning down villages randomly. Wouldn't this attract the government's attention to their activities and endangering their continued stay. In Pakistan we have some Afghan refugees involved in crime but no one is crazy to organize mob violence.

The Bangladeshis have hoisted Pakistani flags at various places and took out processions raising slogans like ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.

Wakeup this is 2009. 1971 happened a long time ago. Another pathetic attempt to malign Pakistan.

It is unfortunate that the Governments, influenced by electoral Considerations, have failed to find a satisfactory solution to it till date.

So is the Assam government also influenced by these "infiltrators". My question is if the state government is concerned enough then why they can't get their police and law enforcement to act without requiring any action from the center.

And whats with this recurring "Bangladeshi muslim" infiltrators. I presume some of the "infiltrators" would have to be hindus as well. But I guess you guys only want to target a specific religious group.

[Goodperson]

My/our comments is for all illegal Bangladeshis. They should be kicked out.

[iajdani]

My/our comments is for all illegal Bangladeshis. They should be kicked out.

You got your papers right in USA dude? Hope you dont get kicked in Atlantic anytime soon.

[indiatech]

@indiatech
Sounds like a lot of hindutva propaganda. There are so many loopholes in this story that renders it completely incredulous.
For the sake of discussion, lets assume that there are hundreds of thousands of such illegal immigrants and then analyze your story.



And where did you get this information. The illegal immigrants would have to be mindless nuts to do something like this. Is there any benefit for them in burning down villages randomly. Wouldn't this attract the government's attention to their activities and endangering their continued stay. In Pakistan we have some Afghan refugees involved in crime but no one is crazy to organize mob violence.



Wakeup this is 2009. 1971 happened a long time ago. Another pathetic attempt to malign Pakistan.



So is the Assam government also influenced by these "infiltrators". My question is if the state government is concerned enough then why they can't get their police and law enforcement to act without requiring any action from the center.

And whats with this recurring "Bangladeshi muslim" infiltrators. I presume some of the "infiltrators" would have to be hindus as well. But I guess you guys only want to target a specific religious group.

Dear ,Illegal bangladeshis now runs fully armed gangs with AK weapons, US carbines, RPG etc after they used to be killed by the bodo millitants. Now they retaliate. And thats what happened in 2008. Burning villages of local people sending them to camps.

Who arms them ? well you need to ask your ISI bros as well. By the way please don't lecture on propaganda siting in pakistan.

Assam was not a muslim state and we never want it to be. There were hundreds of them after independence and now it is 40%.
Now that there is a rampage, we want the bangladeshis to go without any violence.We consider them as a threat to our culture and as a threat to india's national security. Else future is not good for us as well as them.

Migration is a natural phenomenon, but illegal migration dominating others land slowly is the actual propaganda and will not be tolerated.

[iajdani]

Bangladeshis, get your butt out of assam and North East.

I know you, you are the one who looks like chinese aint it? kick all chinese out of assam and reclaim assam to greater bengal.

[indiatech]

Incumbent and useless congress rule for ages has left us in this situation today and they will never solve this problem for us. Instead they have sheltered these illegals by creating the IMDT act for assam so that they can get the votes. What a shame. Vote bank politics compromising national security.

[Jako]

India should kick illegal Bangladeshis out they can be easily identified their dialect is far different than West Bengal.
Congress government has big hand in keeping Bangladeshis.

A BIG NO.....you do know,how many proud and patriotic indians are there who migrated(yes legally,it was legal) from bd after 1947.....you know how they speak???......in kolkata you can find more bangals(bd migrants,and bd dialect speaking) than ghotis(original west bengalese,with a different bengali tune)......and for the rest of the posts,YES!!....'ILLEGAL' bd migrants in india shoul be kicked out of my country!

[indiatech]

I know you, you are the one who looks like chinese aint it? kick all chinese out of assam and reclaim assam to greater bengal.

I know you. You are the one who shouts everytime an illegal bangladeshi gets killed in Assam. Saying that this is nothing but atrocities against muslims.

Call your brothers back peacefully, else you have no idea how they will be handled in future.


You will never be thankful to what we sacrificed. Will you ever?
Give us our Sylhet district back to assam which we lost during your creation. We would be happy to bring back our lost glory and culture back.
We had no idea that us being soft will be used as a propaganda to in future by bangladeshis to destabilize assam and cause security problems in india.

[r3alist]

my my, whatever happened to tolerant secular india?

all i hear is kick those bengali muslims out!!

[iajdani]

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I know you. You are the one who shouts everytime an illegal bangladeshi gets killed in Assam. Saying that this is nothing but atrocities against muslims.

Call your brothers back peacefully, else you have no idea how they will be handled in future.


You will never be thankful to what we sacrificed. Will you ever?
Give us our Sylhet district back to assam which we lost during your creation. We would be happy to bring back our lost glory and culture back.
We had no idea that us being soft will be used as a propaganda to in future by bangladeshis to destabilize assam and cause security problems in india.

Hahahahah.. why dont you come and get it? The part of Assam which are already claimed by you as being inhabitated by Bangladeshis should be immediately annexed by Bangladesh. The rest will be annexed as they again filled up by illegals. We dont want any Chinese as part of Assam to avert any future ethnic tensions.