Jamiat alleges 50,000 Muslims targeted in Assam eviction drive, seeks CJI’s intervention

Muslim organisation Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind has alleged that Muslim families are being disproportionately targeted in eviction drives in Assam and appealed to Chief Justice of India B R Gavai to take suo motu cognisance of what it called an “unlawful campaign.”

Jamiat president Maulana Arshad Madani expressed alarm over the ongoing drive in Assam, claiming that “more than 50,000 Muslim families” are facing eviction with bulldozers being used to demolish homes solely on the basis of religion.

His remarks came days after the Assam government carried out the second phase of its eviction operation inside Rengma Reserve Forest in Golaghat district, displacing nearly 230 families to clear encroached land. The first phase of the drive, conducted in early August at Uriamghat along the Assam-Nagaland border, had removed encroachments from around 9,000 bighas of forest land, affecting about 1,500 families, many of them Muslims, according to officials.

Also Read: Assam CM assures tight security as Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind delegation visits Goalpara

A statement issued after a meeting of the Jamiat’s working committee in Delhi said the organisation was deeply concerned about the “rise in communalism, extremism, and religiously motivated discrimination against minorities, especially Muslims.” It also criticised what it described as “a campaign by communal forces against madrasas and mosques” despite the Places of Worship Act being in place.

Addressing the meeting, Madani alleged that “a planned campaign is underway to target Muslim-populated areas in Assam and forcibly displace their residents.” He added, “By doing so, it is not just Muslim settlements that are being bulldozed — it is the Constitution and the rule of law in Assam that are being crushed.”

Accusing Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of disregarding constitutional principles, Madani urged the judiciary to intervene. “In light of the recent campaign, under which nearly 50,000 families have been displaced solely on the basis of their religion, we call upon the Chief Justice of India to take suo motu notice and initiate legal action against all those involved,” he said.