The story of 65-year-old Sakina Begum from Assam exposes a disturbing pattern in India’s treatment of its own marginalized citizens. Declared a “foreigner” by Assam’s Foreigners Tribunal despite being a khilonjia Muslim — an indigenous Assamese community with centuries of roots in the region — she was detained, released on bail, and later forced into regular police reporting. In May this year, she was summoned under the pretext of signing papers and then disappeared. Weeks later, she resurfaced not in Assam but in Dhaka’s Mirpur, abandoned across the border after what rights groups describe as a “push-out.”
Human rights organizations in Assam and New Delhi have long accused Indian authorities of misusing “foreigner” designations, often on flimsy or erroneous paperwork, to disenfranchise poor Muslims and Bengali-speaking communities. Families are broken apart, with many ending up in detention centers while others are secretly pushed across the Bangladesh border in violation of international norms.
The Assam government itself admitted in court that several detainees had been handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF). Yet, once “transferred,” many like Sakina Begum vanish without record — only to appear later in Bangladesh, stateless and cut off from their families. Activists allege this is part of a systematic campaign to rid Assam of “declared foreigners,” even if they are long-standing Indian citizens.
The case highlights the dangers of India’s ongoing drive against so-called “illegal Bangladeshis,” where entire populations are rendered disposable. The “push-out” of citizens not only violates India’s constitutional guarantees but also amounts to a denial of basic human dignity.
As Sakina Begum’s family pleads for her return, her ordeal is a reminder that behind India’s administrative jargon of “foreigners” and “detention,” lies a state strategy of exclusion and forced displacement.
