Some 280 individuals have been ‘pushed into’ Bangladesh by Indian authorities since May 06, after Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) detained a group of another 16 people on Wednesday, a Bangladesh news outlet, The Business Standard, reported.
According to local police, three of them are Indian citizens, as reported by Scroll. They were among 78 people who were allegedly pushed across the river into Bangladesh on May 8.
Lt Commander HMM Harun-Or-Rashid, spokesperson for the Coast Guard, said they rescued 75 Bangladeshi Muslims and three Indian Muslims, who had been illegally pushed into Bangladeshi territory by the Indian authorities. Humayun Kabir, the officer in charge of Shyamnagar police station in Bangladesh, who filed the report, said that Bangladesh forest department officials and the coast guard had rescued the 78 people from the Mandarbaria area of the Sundarbans in Satkhira.
In the latest incident, the group pushed in through the Aatgram border area in Sylhet’s Kanaighat includes eight men, six women, and two children. They claim to be Bangladeshi citizens who had been living illegally in India for an extended period.
They were reportedly blindfolded and transported on a military aircraft to an undisclosed location, while their family members were taken separately on another military aircraft to a different destination, the statement read.
According to TBS, many were found in poor health, with visible injuries. One individual had a broken arm, and others bore signs of physical abuse.
The report stated that three alleged Indians, 20-year-old Abdur Rahman, 24-year-old Muhammad Hasan Shah, and 19-year-old Saiful Sheikh, all reportedly from Nehrunagar, Gujarat, were arrested for entering Bangladesh without proper documents, and a case was filed against them under Section 4 of the 1952 Control of Entry Act.
On April 26, Gujarat Police conducted a raid in Ahmedabad’s Chandola area, involving officers from the crime branch, some in plain clothes, following the Pahalgam attack, which left 26 people dead. During the raid, the Gujarat Police detained 1,024 individuals suspected to be Bangladeshi nationals residing in Ahmedabad and Surat.
The Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh had earlier sent a letter to India on May 8, “raising concern over people being pushed into the country and urged New Delhi to adhere to established repatriation mechanisms”.
On 10 May, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma confirmed that inmates of the Matia detention centre, including Rohingyas, were “pushed back” into Bangladesh by Indian authorities. He was confirming a report about Bangladesh Border Guard detaining at least 123 individuals, including Rohingyas and Bengali-speaking individuals, after India pushed them into their territory.
On Thursday, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) condemned the forced expulsion of 148 Bengali-speaking Muslims from the state, calling the operation a violation of constitutional and international law.
According to PUCL, individuals from the Sikar and Kotputli districts were picked up by Rajasthan police, handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) in Jodhpur, and transported by air to the international border in West Bengal for what the group described as an “unlawful pushback.”
