Over 1,100 Bengali Muslim families evicted in two days in Assam, 10 mosques demolished

More than 1,100 families, most of them Bengali-speaking Muslims, have been evicted from forest land in Assam's Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat districts in a two-day eviction drive in the Indian state. At least 10 mosques were demolished during the operation.

According to local media reports, between 500 and 600 families were removed on Sunday from the Lutumari Longjap reserved forest area in Nagaon amid tight security.

On the previous day, a total of 547 families had been evicted — 336 in Nagaon, 152 in Hojai and 59 in Golaghat. Together, the two days pushed the number of evicted families past 1,100.

Abdul Nur, one of the evicted residents, said their ancestors, who worked as labourers for the Forest Department under the colonial-era 'taungya' system, had been resettled on this land before 1971. In other words, residents claim their settlement on the land goes back generations.

A petition against the eviction was filed in the Gauhati High Court, but the court, in the interest of protecting the reserved forest, ordered them to vacate the land within 30 days. The drive went ahead following that order.

The Assam government says the operation is being carried out to free government and forest land from encroachment. According to the government's position, clearing reserved forest land is part of its policy decision.

However, according to official data, around 19,000 families have been evicted from government land during a decade of BJP rule in Assam, most of them from the Muslim community. That figure has intensified the debate surrounding the eviction drives.

So many families losing their homes at once in a two-day operation, along with the demolition of 10 mosques, has had a deep local impact. For the evicted families, the biggest question now is where they will go.

The residents' account and the government's account stand in completely opposite positions — allegations of eviction from generational settlements on one side, and the official argument of clearing forest land on the other. Amid this tension, the eviction issue in Assam has returned to the centre of discussion.

The court order's deadline for vacating the land and the question of protecting forest areas are being presented as the legal basis of the drive. But available information contains no clear announcement about what will happen regarding rehabilitation of the evicted families.

Altogether, the two-day eviction in Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat has brought Assam's long-running land and settlement dispute back to the forefront, with the future of more than 1,100 families now uncertain.