Protesters Arrested, Medical 'Neglect' of Injured, and Blame: What Follows an Eviction in Assam

Barpeta (Assam): A 19-year-old boy, Sakuar Ali, was shot dead and several others were severely injured on July 17, when Assam police opened fire on a group protesting against an eviction drive in Asudubi, near the Paikan Reserved Forest in Goalpara district. In the days that have followed, a familiar pattern has emerged.

Five days earlier, on July 12, the district administration and forest department had demolished the homes of 1,080 families, along with several other structures, claiming they were illegal encroachments on 140 hectares of forest land. Left homeless, many families took shelter in makeshift tarpaulin tents near the eviction site, hoping to retrieve possessions from the debris.

On the morning of July 17, the administration brought an excavator to dig up a road – a move which would cut motor access to the area. Locals who were still reeling from the eviction gathered around the excavator and tried to stop the digging of the road. Police opened fire. 

Shortly afterwards, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sharma blamed Congress MP and Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi for the whole chain of events. Sarma also indicated in several of his posts on X that the eviction drives taken up by his administration were against "illegal" people and were done to save Assam from a "demographic invasion”. 

The deceased teenager, Sakuar Ali, ran a small grocery shop. He was on his way to his sister’s house in Goalpara on the morning of July 17. When he reached the area where the violence took place, police had already begun firing, said his sister. “My parents are still in shock and barely conscious. Whenever they wake up, they ask for my brother,” Ali's sister said.

Sakuar Ali’s family have submitted a complaint at the Krishnai Police Station, requesting registration of a first information report against "the brutal and unjustified police firing" on July 17.

Meanwhile, Assam forest authorities have had their complaint at the same police station registered as an FIR. This FIR (40/2025) invokes sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita that allege rioting, unlawful assembly, criminal trespass, and mischief among others, along with sections of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and the Assam Forest Regulation Act.

A student leader who participated in the July 17 protest alleged that police have and are arbitrarily arresting people from the area and adding their names to the FIR.

The Telegraph quoted additional superintendent of police, crime, Rituraj Doley as having said that police arrested at least 21 people from the area.  

'Medical negligence'

Amir Hamza (27), a mason, was retrieving rods from the remains of his demolished house when he was suddenly hit by a bullet, his brother Shahan Shah Paramanik (32) said. He was critically injured and first taken to Goalpara Civil Hospital, from where he was referred to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), where he is currently undergoing treatment. His brother has claimed that the authorities are "delaying his treatment." "How long will he suffer like this?” he asked. 

The Wire has not able to confirm this allegation with medical officers, but Paramanik is not the only family member who has alleged medical negligence.

Kasimuddin Sheikh (27), a daily wage earner and a father of two, is in the intensive care unit at GMCH. Sheikh also has a bullet injury. His brother Rafikul Islam (19) said, “We’ve been pleading with the doctors to hurry some aspects of his treatment. They’re not paying attention. My brother will die in this way.”  

Kasimuddin’s uncle, Abbas Ali (34) claimed, “We were told on Saturday that his blood report will come after five days.”

Dr. Ujjal Kumar Sarma, deputy superintendent at GMCH said that Amir Hamza was taken to the operation theatre on the morning of July 21. He claimed that the delay in treatment occurred because they "could not confirm how deep the bullet had gone inside his body."

'Forest area'

The administration claims the land is part of the Paikan Forest– declared as Paikan Reserve Forest in 1982, but residents insist it is Asudubi Revenue Village, where people have lived for decades, many holding legal land documents. A resident, who requested anonymity, said, “The forest office has demarcated a different area, inhabited by non-Muslims, as the forest. But they illegally evicted us, claiming that our land falls under the reserved forest.” 

Several families claimed they possessed miyadi patta (permanent land documents), while some had submitted applications under the government’s Basundhara scheme. A local resident who lost his home in the eviction drive filed an RTI in 2024. The reply stated that there is no gazette notification in the Matia Circle Office proving that the land possessed by the applicant is part of the reserved forest.

Many evicted people claimed by showing their documents that they have been living in the area as their names had been enlisted in the voter list of 1970 under Asudubi Village under Matia Circle, Goalpara.

“We have lived here for generations. This is Asudubi revenue village. My father voted here in 1965. His name is in the NRC of 1951. I was also born in this village and voted here. How am I a Bangladeshi?” Shan Shah Paramanik, whose brother sustained bullet injuries, said. Their 80-year-old father, Danesh Ali, a heart patient, had to be moved without being told what had happened. “He will die if he finds out,” Paramanik added.

Large-scale evictions now a norm

The Paikan incident is the latest in a growing pattern of eviction drives in Assam that have disproportionately affected East Bengal-origin Muslims. The community used to be pejoratively referred to as 'Miya' Muslims but its members have now increasingly been reclaiming the name for themselves. 

Large-scale evictions in Dholpur (Darrang), Kachutali (Kamrup), Hasila Beel (Goalpara) and Bilashipara (Dhubri) have seen the demolition of homes and the displacement of thousands of flood-affected and economically poor families – frequently without rehabilitation. In multiple cases, including at Asudubi and Dholpur, these evictions have turned violent, leading to the death of at least seven locals in police firing after the BJP-led government came to power in 2016. Between 2016 and August 2024, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslims – have been evicted in Assam. 

Activists and lawmakers allege that the state is weaponising environmental and development narratives to criminalise poor, marginalised communities, especially Muslims.

All India United Democratic Front MLA Ashraful Hussain visited the eviction site on July 12, but was denied entry. He said, “The BJP-led government is primarily targeting Muslims of Bengali origin in Assam. The evicted people in Asudubi and Bidyapara villages were denied shelter and food, and this violated the high court's directive. Additionally, the authorities fired at people in a brutal and inhumane manner.”

Hussain further added, “Through his comments, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is creating 'otherness' as part of a larger pattern of dehumanisation of Muslims in India."

In an X post Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that the government has freed 1,19,548 bighas of land from encroachers. He highlighted “Assam has faced an existential threat due to rampant illegal infiltration and a planned encroachment to alter demography of districts.”

Akash Doley, an activist and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) leader said that while Sarma has claimed that the rights of indigenous communities is going to be protected through these moves, "Many of these people have been living here before 25 March 1971, the benchmark date for Indian citizenship in Assam."

Rights activist Pranab Doley noted that the eviction drives have the sole objective of dividing and ruling. "They don't help either the tribal population or any caste or religious groups. The whole agenda is very clear. They want to open up Assam's resources and land for loot by Adani and Ambani and keep people divided on the BJP line of Hindu-Muslim politics,” he said.

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