"He is Indian": Assam woman awaits justice after husband's deportation to Bangladesh

In Assam’s South Salmara Mankachar district, Rita Khanam clings to faith as she anxiously awaits news of her missing husband, who was last seen in a video reportedly filmed in the ‘no man’s land’ along the Indo-Bangladesh border earlier this week. 

The footage has left her distraught and desperate for answers amid growing concerns over covert deportations.

Speaking to PTI over the phone from her home at Khandapukhuri in Morigaon district, Khanam said her family is in touch with the authorities and has submitted documents to prove her husband Khairul Islam’s Indian nationality.

She remains hopeful that "justice will prevail."

Islam was among nine persons arrested by Morigaon police on May 24 in a crackdown on illegal immigrants declared by the Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT), but who had been evading deportation.

Along with his three siblings, Islam was declared a foreigner by the FT in 2016, a decision he challenged in the Gauhati High Court.

The High Court upheld the FT’s ruling, leading to his detention in 2018.

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He was set free in 2020 following a Supreme Court general order to release all detainees who had spent more than two years in jail.

"My husband is a former school teacher and a law-abiding citizen. On May 23, personnel from Mikirbheta police station came to our house and took him away, saying they had a few questions and he could return home after that," Khanam said.

Khanam said she had a gut feeling that the situation was more serious, as police came at a late hour.

"And the next thing we know, he was taken to Morigaon SP’s office and from there, to the detention camp at Matia (in Goalpara district). And then, the video emerged where we found that he had been deported to Bangladesh," she claimed.

Islam is believed to be among 14 illegal Bangladeshi nationals who were sent back to their country by the BSF through the South Salmara Mankachar border on Tuesday.

Though a BSF officer, who refused to be identified, had confirmed deporting the persons, an official statement by the force said a "large group of Bangladeshis" had attempted to infiltrate, which was successfully thwarted by the border guards.

Khanam claimed that her husband’s appeal against the FT decision is pending before the Supreme Court, though local police maintained that they had the necessary clearance for his deportation.

"In the case of Khairul Islam, we had the necessary clearance to deport him. But for his two brothers and a sister, who were also declared foreigners by the FT, we are awaiting legal formalities. Hence, we have not detained them," a local police officer told PTI.

Khanam is confident of her husband’s Indian nationality, and their family members are already in touch with the authorities to present necessary documents.

"Our relatives are pursuing the matter. We know that he is an Indian and I have full faith in ‘Ishwar and Allah’ that he will return," she said, as she waited at their residence with her two teenaged children for Islam.